Durrant Pate/Contributor

Jamaican food conglomerate Seprod Limited plans to list its last year acquired Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) family company, AS Bryden & Sons on the Jamaican Stock Exchange (JSE).

The disclosure was made by Seprod CEO Richard Pandohie, who also serves as chief executive of the Brydens Group, speaking with the Trinidad Daily Express. AS Bryden, one of the twin-island republic’s longest-standing family businesses, is expected to be publicly listed before the end of the year.

Pandohie indicated that already staff have already begun purchasing shares in the company adding “the employees are happy; 54 per cent of the (Bryden) employees have taken up shares in the company. We wanted our employees to be owners so when I am talking to them I am talking to my bosses.”

Moving from ‘family company’ to public entity

Continuing, Pandohie told Express Business, “Bryden going from a private family company to a public company, that is a big transition.” AS Bryden & Sons commenced operationsin October 1923 under William Francis Bryden, making this year the company’s 100th anniversary in Trinidad and Tobago.

The plan is to have the company first listed on the Jamaican stock market, where its parent company is also listed, which should take place by the end of October. Once done, AS Bryden will then be listed on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange soon after.

Seprod notified the JSE in June last year that it has closed its acquisition of AS Bryden. According to Pandohie, “we wanted to finish that (the listing) earlier in the year but the audit won’t be completed until the end of this month so that has delayed us a little bit but apart from that we are excited about listing.”

He pointed out that ongoing audit is part of the process being undertaken to also change AS Bryden’s reporting period to coincide with that of Seprod’s. AS Bryden’s financial year ends in March while Seprod’s ends in December.

Acquisition has helped transform AS Bryden

Pandohie feels the acquisition has helped transform AS Bryden from just being a local company with some interests in Guyana and Barbados to actually becoming a regional player. He was speaking to Express Business at the AS Bryden booth at this year’s Trade and Investment Convention (TIC) at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya.

Pandohie said the fact that AS Bryden has a presence in the TIC this year is evidence of the company’s changing philosophy. He pointed out this is the first time AS Bryden has been at TIC, while Seprod, on the other hand, first participated in the TIC in 2019.

He commented about the initial ambivalence of Seprod acquiring AS Bryden reminding, “there was a lot of noise with the acquisition, a Jamaican company acquiring such a long-standing Trinidadian company. The initial intent was to make sure first of all that our customers, consumers and the public including the government and the employees had a serious transition. It was to make sure that we went on without any noise and a year later we can tick that box at being done.”

Pandohie is pleased that no staff lost their jobs as a result of the acquisition noting that the total staff complement as a result of the acquisition now stands at 3,500. Although Seprod and AS Bryden are now one group, Pandohie insisted that the AS Bryden “identity” will remain untouched as the brand keeps its name.

Outlook for the future

Going forward Pandohie said T&T has a lot of extra-regional imports and the company intends to be aggressive in going after them and replacing them with production from within the region. He said the company is also trying to make sure they expand to meet demand.

The Seprod and AS Bryden CEO believes the “pharmaceutical space” is exciting from a manufacturing standpoint with the company recently signing off on a US$25 million investment for a new warehouse in Central Trinidad with construction carded for September.

This will start the consolidation of essentially a logistics and distribution hub for the region. Pandohie said the company intends to remain “customer-centric”.