“….From The Ground Up: Taking The View That Uncertainty Presents Many Opportunities.”

Company Profile:

Stock Exchange: Barbados

Company: Goddard Enterprises Limited

2013 Rank: #7

Chairman: A. Charles Herbert

CEO: Anthony H. Ali

Address: The Goddard Building, Haggatt Hall, St. Michael, Barbados.
Tel: (246) 430-5700
Fax: (246) 436-8934
Email: gelinfo@thegelgroup.com
Website: www.goddardenterprisesltd.com

Goddard Enterprises Limited (‘the Company’) is incorporated under the Laws of Barbados. The principal activities of the Company and its subsidiaries (together ‘the Group’) include airline, industrial and restaurant catering, ground handling services, general trading, meat processing, printing and print brokerage, baking, packaging, automobile and automotive parts sales, insurance, real estate, shipping agents and stevedoring, manufacturing of aerosols and liquid detergents, investments, rum distilling, water purification and bottling and island tours. Associated companies are involved in waste disposal, laundry services, financing, property rentals, investments, general insurance and hotel operations.

The Group operates throughout the Caribbean and Central and South America.

The Company is listed on the Barbados Stock Exchange.
These consolidated financial statements have been approved for issue by the Board of Directors on December 16, 2013.

Charles Herbert became Chairman of the Goddard Group of Companies on February 5, 2013, following the retirement of Mr. Joseph N. Goddard. Mr. Herbert spent 15 years of his professional career with The Barbados Mutual Life Assurance Society, now Sagicor Life Inc. (“Sagicor”), and at the time of his resignation, was a member of its senior management team responsible for the Actuarial, Group Insurance and Pensions Departments.

The following edited extract was taken from the company’s 2013 Annual Report to shareholders.

Output in the region is projected to expand by 2.75% in 2013, the lowest rate in four years, with domestic demand remaining the main driver. It is anticipated that growth will edge up to 3% in
2014 as external demand strengthens gradually, but this growth level would still be below the average growth rate of the last decade.

For the financial year ended September 30, 2013, Group revenue decreased by 3.7% over the prior year to $962.6 million. This decrease generated a Gross Profit of $357.3 million, which was up over the prior year by 1.6%. Gross Profit expressed as a percentage of Sales was 37.1%, which was above the 35.2% achieved in 2012. This was accomplished despite an economic environment plagued by spiraling costs, increased competitive activity and high volatility in financial markets.

Our selling, marketing and administrative expenses were $312.7 million, compared to $303.0 million in 2012, which represented an increase of 3.2%. These expenses were due to cost-of-living allowances and mandatory salary adjustments in some of the territories where we operate. They included restructuring costs and one-time charges of $3.4 million incurred on the implementation of a new Economic Profit (“EP”) Incentive Programme and the introduction of an Enterprise Resource Planning System.

Profit from Operations before Other (losses)/gains – net decreased over prior year by 7.8% to $48.7 million. Other (losses)/gains – net increased by $0.6 million on a prior year loss of $1.6 million. This represented a 36.1% increase, which was attributable mainly to hyper-inflationary adjustments made in our Venezuelan operations. Overall Net Income for the year of $34.0 million evidenced a marginal improvement of 0.2% over the prior year, despite a 6.4% decline in Income before Taxation. The overall reduction in the taxation charge of 24.2% was a result of reduced profits seen in our businesses in St. Lucia, a high tax jurisdiction in which we operate.

Our share of Income after Taxation from our Associated Companies rose by $1.9 million to $9.8 million as a result of improved performance by Globe Finance Inc. as well as some of our Associated Companies within our Manufacturing Division.

With regard to the Group Consolidated Balance Sheet, our working capital ratio at 1.49 was marginally below prior year’s ratio and reflected adequate management control over the number of days of inventories and trade receivables. The total assets of the Group’s business was financed by 37.7% debt, which was well within conservative financial guidelines and consistent with the previous year’s experience. Our Net Asset Value per share now stands at $7.67 compared to $7.57 in 2012, an increase of 10 cents per share, and our share price, which moved from $5.50 as at September 30, 2012 to $6.15 as at September 30, 2013, has shown some signs of recovery.

As we look forward to 2014, we recognize that we will continue to operate in an uncertain economic environment but take the view that such uncertainty also presents many opportunities. During the coming year, we intend to focus on enhancing our efficiency, maximising our productivity and improving our cost control mechanisms to ensure that we are poised to capitalize on opportunities as they arise. We will continue to build on our core strengths but will also supplement them with innovation, investment in new technologies and information systems that enable growth.BM
A. Charles Herbert Chairman