“If you engage with the Pan Jamaica Group at the level of our revenue line, you’ll note that about 50 per cent of our revenues are in Europe, in the juice business primarily, but quite significantly at the associate company level in the shipping and logistics business, there’s £100 million.

“And about half of the revenues are in this part of the world, centred primarily in Jamaica,” declared Pan Jam CEO Jeffery Hall at the company’s Annual General Meeting held at the ROK Hotel in Downtown Kingston today

In its segmented results for 2023, 48 per cent of the company’s total revenues of $29 billion came from the Netherlands ($12.37 billion), the United Kingdom ($421.83 million) and other European countries ($5.95 billion).

Hall pointed out that the company has further diversified its geographical and industry footprint over the last year following the amalgamation of PanJamaica Investments Limited and Jamaica Producers Group.

As a result, revenues jumped from $2.51 billion in 2022 to $29 billion in the year under review. Pan Jam’s operating profit of $6.17 billion was an 84 per cent increase year over year when compared to $2.15 billion reported in 2022.

Net profit attributable to shareholders was $1.21 billion (Restated 2022: $47.76 million). However, earnings per stock decreased from $2.53 to $1.69 due to diluted shares.

Outside of the manufacturing, shipping and logistics business lines, Pan Jam has holdings in the agriculture, tourism, business process outsourcing, and financial services sectors.

“There’s a part of that business that we see an opportunity in other financial services where we have an associated company interest [of 20 per cent] in Term Finance [Limited], which does consumer finance [and] micro-lending, which is an important part of the overall opportunity that we see in finance in Jamaica,” Hall explained.

In terms of PanJam’s geographical footprint, the company operates in 15 countries, including through its associate companies with a workforce of approximately 5,000 people. Apart from Europe, the company operates in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States.

In a release published on the Jamaica Stock Exchange website, Pan Jam revealed the divestment of its 50 per cent stake in Dominican Republic-based Grupo Frontera, a holding company that owned producer of ice and bottled water products, Grupo Alaska S.A. The remaining interest in the company was held by  Norbrook Equity Partners.

With a staff complement of over 300 people, Grupo Alaska S.A. has manufacturing and distribution operations in Santo Domingo and Punta Cana.

At the same time, the company said it deepened its investment in the juice processing business in Spain through the acquisition of APA Processing BZ, S.L.U. (‘APA’).

“The acquisition of APA is expected to provide additional high-pressure processing capacity to the Group’s Pan European juice group, The Juicy Group, which has facilities in Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands. The Juicy Group offers a wide range of cold-pressed fresh juices and makes use of advanced ultra-fresh and high-pressure processing technology in all of its facilities,” the release further outlined.