Durrant Pate/Contributor

Jamaican pre-owned car company, Jetcon Corporation is shifting focus towards new car sales with the Beijing Automotive Group Company’s BAIC brand and has received positive feedback thus far with the models. 

BAIC, headquartered in the Chinese capital, is the sixth largest domestic automobile manufacturer, with over 1.7 million sales in 2021.

The shift in focus has come about since banks continue to give more favourable lending rates towards the purchase of new than used cars—reflected in the continuing stagnation of used car sales. 

Jetcon has committed to transferring more resources from used car sales to new car sales, as new car sales pick up. Similarly, solar product sales continue to be positive and combined with new car sales are expected to form the bulk of Jetcon’s revenues in the next 12 months with much higher profit margins than that of used car sales.

Cutting losses in Q1

Jetcon has managed to cut its losses in half during its first quarter ended March 31, 2024. Losses closed the quarter at J$0.89 million compared with J$1.76 million last year. 

‘Cost of Sales’ went down 37 per cent to J$112 million coming from $154 million last year. At the same time, earnings per share went down to 0.15 cents from 0.30 cents last year. 

Balance sheet inventories amounted to J$400 million, which incorporates used and new vehicles and solar products, while receivables totalled J$97 million and included deposits on purchases of imports.