Expansion on the cards as AS Bryden acquisition solves succession dilemma at CPJ

Richard Pandohie, the newly installed chairman of Caribbean Producers Jamaica Limited, CPJ, is touting regional expansion of the business in the aftermath of AS Bryden Group acquiring a 44.8 per cent stake in the food-trading business.

The company also intends to increase its stake in CPJ in the future, Pandohie indicated. Caribbean Producers was founded by partners Mark Hart and Tom Tyler, who were its co-chairmen prior to the recent sale.

Hart was also operating as interim chief executive of Caribbean Producers, but now, the role of CEO has been given to Nicholas Hospedales, who is director of the food and grocery division at AS Bryden & Sons (Trinidad) Limited, a company he has been at for 18 years. Tyler, along with Hart and his wife Candace, will remain CPJ directors.

Pandohie, who is also CEO of Trinidad-based AS Bryden Group and its parent company Jamaica-based Seprod Limited, says he has always been clear that as far as AS Bryden is concerned, the group had regional aspirations. He said CPJ fits the bill exactly as a large food supplier in the Caribbean with great potential for further expansion.

“CPJ has done a good job in establishing their presence, not just in Jamaica, but in the rest of the Caribbean through their connections as they supply the hotel sector. We at AS Bryden want to grow in that area, and rather than starting from scratch, we found that CPJ is the perfect vehicle,” Pandohie said, adding that the intent is to diversify AS Bryden’s risks away from just earning in Trinidadian dollars to earning US dollars in other markets.

Pandohie says now that news of the deal is in the marketplace, principals have been calling to do more business with the now larger entity.

“Now we just have so much more in terms of relationships that we can leverage,” Pandohie said.

Montego Bay-based CPJ is in the business of food and beverage distribution as well as the manufacturing of juices and meats, with operations in Jamaica and St Lucia. The company currently has about 165,000 square feet of warehousing space. Pandohie says he wants to expand that space by increments in addition to adding other elements.

“We haven’t pinned down the numbers as yet, but from a strategic standpoint, we know we want to expand the business ... the distribution network and the amount of space that we have and technology,” he said.

For now, CPJ will remain as is, and going forward, thought will be given to a merged operation if the circumstances warrant it.

CPJ has spent 30 years “building a brand that is recognised, and there’s no immediate rush to subsume the CPJ operation into that of AS Bryden”, Pandohie added.

CPJ is “a solid company with very competent people and the analysis so far shows that there is complementarity rather than overlap or dissonance between the two companies”, he said.

For his part, CPJ co-founder and former chairman Mark Hart said for some time, many companies have been showing interest in his company. Hart said that with co-founder Tom Tyler and him getting on in years and not having children who are either interested or in a position to take over the business, he felt it was time to make a move that would secure the future of the company.

Hart says in exploring the options, the CPJ founders did their due diligence on AS Bryden, going as far as asking the former owners of the Trinidad company, who had sold their interest to Seprod in 2022, about their experience in the aftermath of that acquisition.

“When these guys, AS Bryden, showed interest, it came at a time when succession planning was very much on our radar, and my being interim CEO for the last five years was just not sustainable,” Hart said,adding that the CPJ leaders found a ‘right fit team’ that included Paul ‘PB’ Scott, Richard Pandohie, and Nicholas Scott.

“We looked at what they were doing, and we compared it with what we wanted to do, and over the course of a week, we found that there was a match. They wanted to get into this space, and we made the decision that this was the best option for the next 30 years of CPJ,” Hart said.

Hart said he sold about a third of his stake in CPJ while Tyler sold an undisclosed portion of his holdings. Along with share purchases from Mayberry, AS Bryden now owns 44.8 per cent of CPJ, having bought up a total of 493 million of the 1.1 billion outstanding shares.

Hart says this is part of a strategic holding to secure a position for AS Bryden. Hart says he is unsure as to what will what happen with CPJ as an entity going forward, but at the same time, he is emphasising that whatever happens, he will “keep skin in the game”.

“I am going to still be very much invested in what CPJ does, regardless of the structure. We didn’t want to do a sale and just walk away,” Hart said.

The next six months, according to Pandohie, will be business as usual but with a lot of background work that will assist the expansion. He says a quick examination of CPJ reveals that locally, the bulk of the operation is in western Jamaica, and as such, there will be a more national focus on the buildout.

“The idea is to take them not just regionally, but nationally. Jamaica is still the largest market in the Caribbean, so we will have to cultivate a more national focus. To do that, they will need more warehouse space,” Pandohie said.

Seprod, CPJ, and AS Bryden are all listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

CPJ’s June 2024 year-end results are pending, but last year, its annual revenue topped US$142 million and profit US$6.2 million while its assets amounted to US$90 million.

neville.graham@gleanerjm.com