By: Anthony Morgan

THE ANALYSTS have welcomed the move by listed company, Everything Fresh (EFresh) Jamaica to expand its business to the Bahamas. In a recent statement, the company announced that it transferred shares in its Bahamas operations previously outside the group into the listed company.

Everything Fresh Jamaica, is one of the island’s top importers and distributors of fruits, vegetables and other food products. Consequently, the group now holds 60% shareholding in Everything Fresh Bahamas Limited. According to Everything Fresh Jamaica Chairman, Gregory Pullen, the Bahamian subsidiary “has realized remarkable growth”. The company expects to continue delivering value to the market and grow further in the near term despite the challenges presented by the pandemic.

The group started exploring the Bahamas company transaction from early 2019. Co-Founder of Caribbean Value Investor, Devrhoid Davis, commended the company for taking the initiative to expand in the region during this COVID-19 period, saying it’s “welcomed news”.

In a 2018 agreement, EFresh first acquired the St Catherine based Meat Experts. Davis recalled that the takeover, which was completed for J$50 million, allowed the company to add products such as sausages, pork cuts and seafood to its product line, to supply their supermarket and hotel customer base.

Senior Wealth Advisor at Ideal Porfolio Services, Orick Angus, said despite not being initially fond of the company upon its entrance to the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange, he believes the Bahamas acquisition will help them to increase their revenue and profit margin.

“It’s a big deal for the company,” he said, while pledging his “full support” of the deal.  Angus, however, reasoned that trading on the stock exchange has not yet been responsive to the deal. The company started trading in November at $0.74, up $0.10 up from October 16 when the acquisition was announced. That’s a decent jump in price, but the volumes are less than a million units, arguably too thin for any meaningful profit on the trade.

Angus however feels that the recovery of the tourism sector in the region overtime will reflect positively on the stock price. 

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