Carreras heading back west with the ‘Black Cat’
Published:Wednesday | September 25, 2024 | 12:06 AMNeville Graham/Business Reporter
After moving from its sprawling Twickenham Park base near Spanish Town, St Catherine, in 2015, cigarette distributor Carreras Limited is moving back to a location that sits on the border of the parishes of St Catherine and St Andrew at the Ferry Industrial Estate. The company made the announcement in a stock market filing filing.
The move from Twickenham Park, nearly a decade ago, became necessary after the company found itself occupying a small fraction of the space that once housed a manufacturing and warehousing facility along with its corporate offices.
Carreras, which is majority owned by British Amercian Tobacco Plc, sold the complex in 2015 for $395 million, a full decade after exiting the manufacturing of cigarettes in 2005 to concentrate on marketing and distribution of the product.
The company split its operations, with its sales and distribution office at 35 Hagley Park Road and its corporate office at 13A Ripon Road, New Kingston. But come November 11, 2024, Carreras will be relocating and consolidating all its Jamaican operations at 8 Automotive Parkway, in the Kingston 20 zone. The leased complex, which spans approximately 27,000 square feet of combined office and warehousing space, will accommodate the company’s needs and enable them to operate more efficiently, the company said in response to queries regarding the relocation.
Carreras also said the iconic Black Cat statue, long associated with the company at the front of the Twickenham Park complex, will be on prominent display at its new home.
Carreras trades in cigarette brands British American Tobacco and its member companies, including Craven “A” and Matterhorn. More recently, Carreras also added Vuse, a leading global vaping brand, to its distribution portfolio.
Since 2022, Carreras has been looking at measures to cut costs. It started modernising its delivery fleet in partnership with JAMECO to introduce electric vehicles. In 2023, the company had eight electric BYD T3 panel commercial units in operation, realising net savings of $4.1 million, zero carbon emissions and a 300 per cent improvement in carrying capacity, the cigarette trader noted in its annual report.
The fleet has since been expanded to nine EVs and 11 hybrid vehicles.
Carreras wants to benefit from efficiencies arising from being on a new campus which will house both the corporate office and the sales and distribution centre, as was the case at the Twickenham Park complex.
“This move is aimed at enhancing efficiency, improving the distribution of our products across the island, streamlining workflows and fostering better collaboration across departments,” the company said.
“The consolidation is expected to yield significant operational efficiencies. Centralising our operations will allow us to optimise resources, better manage costs and provide a more conducive environment for employees, in line with our ‘A Better Tomorrow’ focus,” Carreras told the Financial Gleaner, but noted that it was too early to quantify the expected savings.