LEVY... Jamaica is in a very good spot (Photo: Naphtali Junior)
‘Jamaica rocking and rolling’
Optimistic Levy sees growth in local business for Broilers Group
Jamaica Broilers Group Limited (JBG) is optimistic about its growth prospects due to increasing demand in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean as the company’s chicken and egg production hits record numbers.
This was the message of JBG Group president and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Levy at a private briefing held last Thursday on the company’s third-quarter (November to January) report. Jamaica is the primary market for JBG which operates several brands such as The Best Dressed Chicken, Reggae Jammin, and Hamilton’s Smokehouse. These brands have continued to expand over the last decade with the company recently introducing new SKUs (stock keeping units) or products such as branded Vienna sausages, nuggets and boneless wings.
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“Jamaica is in a very good spot. The area that Jamaica is most competitive in is in tourism. When you look at the growth of tourism, that has a direct impact on us. So, you take a hotel, and a hotel puts up 350 rooms, about two-people occupancy and is running 70 per cent occupancy, there are about 600 to 700 people in a hotel. They run about four people [staff] to a guest. They will have a back office of let’s say 1,000 to 2,000 people,” Levy reasoned.
“That drives our business in the most unbelievable way. The opportunity that is there for us in our local business is incredible. We need to invest and keep growing in Jamaica. While I think that the opportunity for us is in the USA, Jamaica is rocking and rolling.”
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Jamaica should be seeing the addition of more than 12,000 hotel rooms between 2024 and 2027 by major brands like Hard Rock, Sandals Resorts International, Secrets, Wyndham Hotel Group, and Palladium Hotel Group. Six new hotels are set to begin construction in the current fiscal year (April 2025 to March 2026).
The growth in the number of hotel rooms has also been matched by the opening of new locations by existing quick service restaurants (QSRs) such as KFC, Popeyes, Mother’s, and Island Grill, new arrivals such as BirdShack Fried Chicken, Quick Chick, and re-entry of Church’s Texas Chicken which is set to open a new location in the third quarter of 2025 at Mall Plaza in Half-Way-Tree, St Andrew. The growth in QSRs comes as there is a continued increase in housing solutions and move by more companies to hybrid work models which also benefits catering firms.
JBG’s fastest growing segment is in the production of five-pound chicken which allows for the company to introduce different SKUs as it represents 30 per cent of the company’s Jamaican chicken production. These SKUs continue to facilitate the growth of its export business into the Caribbean, which represents 10 per cent of overall production.
“In terms of our Caribbean business, that’s all export and we want to drive that as hard as we can. We’re excited about the opportunities that we see there. We’re in 10 to 12 different countries across the Caribbean already and we’re working with PriceSmart in Trinidad,” Levy noted in response to the growth potential there.
All of these positive improvements continue to bolster JBG’s relationship with small farmers who supply about 30 per cent of the firm’s chicken processing production capacity. These farmers are, in turn, supported by JBG’s Hi-Pro business which provides feeding grain and other products needed to support those poultry farms.
JBG’s revenue from its Jamaican operations marginally grew to $44.68 billion for the nine months period ending January 25. However, the segment result for Jamaica dipped nine per cent from $5.95 billion to $5.38 billion as the company had some disruptions related to the impact of Hurricane Beryl in July 2024. The segment result is effectively the operating profit of each segment before unallocated corporate expenses are accounted for to get the group’s consolidated operating profit.
The total assets of the Jamaican business grew nine per cent over the nine months to $52.18 billion with current assets making up $22.78 billion of that portion. Total liabilities increased 11 per cent to $31.25 billion as the Jamaican company took on some short-term debt to support the USA operations which is currently being restructured.
