LJ Williams Ltd yesterday reported after-tax profit of $275,000 for its financial year ended March 31, 2024, a 95.3 per cent decline compared to the $5.9 million the company earned in its 2023 financial year.
In the LJ Williams chairman’s review, Lawford Dupres, said the parent company had a slight decline in food and allied sales due to the impact of supplier price increases, which resulted in lower sell through at its retail points. He said the company’s shipping division sales were marginally lower but with an improved profit
“The decline in discretionary spending affected The Home Store as consumers spent mainly on essential items. Sales are lower than last year despite a full year of sales from our Trincity branch.
“Margins were lower as we ran more specials to move our inventory. This contributed to The Home Store recording a loss, which affected the Group’s profitability,” the the company’s chairman added.
In the managing director’s report, LJ Williams said the parent company in FY2024, started to feel the full impact of supplier price increases and consumers reducing their spending and focusing more on essential purchases.
“Our food division sales declined three per cent and sale promotions to maintain market share affected profit. We have cut costs by reducing the number of trade routes we service and transitioning our fleet from diesel to CNG. This will reduce fleet cost and improve our green footprint,” it said.
Sharing details about The Home Store, the report said, “We had a difficult financial year 2024 with the economy stagnant and consumers reducing their discretionary spending. We started seeing a drop off in sales from late 2022 and it accelerated in our final quarter of FY2024.”