Stationery & Office Supplies Limited (SOS) has restated its intent to increase exports in the current financial year.

During the company’s first quarter, which ended March 31, 2024, SOS shipped five containers to three islands within the region. It plans to add more shipments in the second quarter.

“Along with SEEK, we will continue to focus on our regional expansion that saw a significant increase in export containers and we will also be looking at appointing new dealers throughout the Caribbean,” Managing Director Allan McDaniel.

“Other avenues that we intend to focus on to achieve higher revenue figures in 2024 are the continued push of 3M products that we were appointed the local distributor for at the end of 2023, as well as our recent agreement to be the local distributor for PILOT CORPORATION, a company known around the world for the brand “PILOT” which manufactures and distributes top quality pens worldwide. Distribution of both of these brands can and will have a positive effect on the bottom line for SOS,” he added.

The company has pinned its expectations of growing exports on the construction of a new 8,000 square foot warehouse on the recently purchased property located at 26 Collins Green Avenue. Managing Director Allan McDaniel indicated back in March this year that the investment into the new warehouse and machinery would double its output capacity and increase storage.

“This warehouse will form an integral part of SOS’s expansion plan for 2024 as with the completion of this building, not only will we have additional space to store products but it will also create the additional room to house the planned expansion of the SEEK manufacturing plant,” McDaniel wrote in an update to shareholders accompanying the company’s first-quarter results.

“The SEEK factory is being retooled and additional machinery is being imported to triple the factory’s annual output,” he continued.

With the arrival of the new machinery anticipated for mid-year, McDaniel and the SOS team is projecting that the warehouse will be operational by the third quarter of this year. The implementation of these initiatives is expected help SOS surpass its best financial year of 2023.

“…and we believe that we are on the right track to achieve this,” McDaniel said.

SOS improved its revenues over 2022 by 20 per cent at the end of last year, earning $1.94 billion. Net profit of $278 million was 8 per cent more than the $257 reported a year earlier.

“To ensure that we continued this historic achievement, management had to once again generate new and innovative ways to continue to push SOS forward to new heights,” the managing director said.

For Q1 2024, revenues rose by just over a per cent to $524.8 million. A 13 per cent increase in expenses was due to a salary increase given to the staff as well as bonuses.

Net profit of $109.25 million was one per cent more than net profit for Q1 2023.

The purchase of property, increases in receivables and inventory were the main contributors to an 18 per cent increase in total assets to $1.8 billion.  Cash resources fell from $296.71 million to $282.39.

Earnings per share remained the same at 4 cents.