The year 2020 will go down in history as the year of COVID-19, which saw companies and economies decimated and scrambling to find means to recover.

Not so for Jamaican manufacturing conglomerate Seprod, which has operations in the wider Caribbean.

Managing Director Richard Pandohie was able to steer the Group into significant profitability in the most challenging of circumstances.

For the year ended December 31, 2020, Seprod posted a net profit of J$3.10 billion, a 218 per cent jump on the J$973 million reported on the prior year.

Explaining this stellar performance, the Seprod boss told Our Today: “2020 was a big year for the group as several of the initiatives undertaken in the prior years came together nicely.

“The performance was the result of doing several things right but, equally important, it was also the result of deciding what not to do. In the last four years, we have divested the soap operation, the bleach operation and exited the sugar manufacturing business. This has allowed us to reduce our distraction and focus on core businesses which have the greatest potential to deliver sustainable growth.”

Pandohie said that, within these businesses, Seprod has:

• Retooled by investing in new equipment,
• Invested heavily in product innovation,
• Expanded our export drive, and
• Upgraded quality of workforce, especially in the technical areas.

“The diversified nature of our portfolio has also been a big plus in this COVID period. On the distribution side, we have food merchandise and also pharmaceutical products; both of which showed strong demand during the year,” Pandohie said.

He added that the results of 2020 have set the benchmark going forward, with the key focus areas being:

• Looking after our people by doing the best we can to ensure that their personal economy is not negatively impacted,
• Product innovation, particularly those that will generate demand in the export markets. Currently export is 14 per cent of total manufacturing output, aim is to get to 20 per cent by end of year.
• Productivity improvement, for this year the target is to improve productivity by three per cent.
• Massive focus on the dairy farms. Investments will be made in climate resilient infrastructure and incorporate more technology adaptation to improve production and productivity.
• Warehousing consolidation, which will go live by Q4 2020 and that will yield big benefits in lowering cost per box movement.

“We will continue to focus on keeping it simple by getting the basics right and executing well. It is satisfying to deliver these stellar results but at the same time, we are well aware that we have tons of opportunities to improve, so there will be no relaxation in our effort,” the Seprod managing director said.