Building on its regional success in the Bahamas, local food distributor Everything Fresh Limited (EFresh) is preparing to enter another Caribbean market to further expand its regional presence.

In a side interview following the company’s annual general meeting earlier this week, Chairman Gregory Pullen revealed that EFresh’s plans were partly driven by the opportunity to leverage established customer relationships in Jamaica to secure business in this new market, where several of its largest clients already operate. .

“We have expanded into the Bahamas and we see similar potential elsewhere,” Pullen told the Jamaica Observer.

“The demand is there and many of our main customers are present in this new market. Our expansion there allows us to strengthen existing ties and serve them more directly,” he explained, adding that the company is seeking to enter the new market by adopting a fresh approach – starting from scratch rather than to acquire an existing entity.

No timetable for the completion of the company’s expansion plan has been disclosed.

“It’s too early to tell,” Pullen said. He also declined to name the market the company has its eyes on.

EFresh’s plans for regional growth closely align with major restructuring efforts at the national level. The expansion comes as the company strengthens its non-hospitality business segments to meet growing demand for food products beyond the tourism sector.

The shift is a critical strategy, Pullen said, especially given recent challenges in the hospitality sector, which has been hit by two U.S. travel advisories in 2024. Once responsible for more than half of EFresh’s Jamaican revenue, hotel sales declined 15 percent in 2024. the first half of this year. However, the company’s retail and non-hospitality operations in Jamaica grew by 26 percent, mitigating the impact and generating higher margins.

“We have rebalanced the composition of our income,” noted the president. “Previously, more than half of our business came from hospitality, but the shift to supermarkets and restaurants has helped strengthen the margin base.”

The planned expansion also aligns with EFresh’s recent operational improvements, including the transfer of a large portion of its inventory from Kingston to the expanded Bog Walk distribution facility in St. Catherine. Now serving as a central hub, the Bog Walk site offers three times the cold storage space and twice the space for dry goods, streamlining logistics for customers in the North Coast tourist belt. Jamaica and reducing both transportation costs and delivery times.

EFresh’s strengthened position was supported by a recent $361.4 million capital injection, managed by GK Capital, which strengthened the company’s financial flexibility ahead of the busy Christmas period. Of this amount, $110 million was allocated to repay very expensive short-term debt, with the remainder of the funds used to build inventory in the key markets of Jamaica and the Bahamas.

“This capital infusion has allowed us to better support demand and strategically build inventory in our primary markets,” Pullen said.

The company’s operational focus has also extended to strengthening its administrative, sales and merchandising teams, while expanding its marketing efforts to capture a broader range of retail customers. EFresh has also invested in synchronizing its operations in the Bahamas with those in Jamaica, creating a streamlined, real-time reporting system that ensures effective monitoring. With demand in the Bahamas expected to increase this year compared to 2023, EFresh has revamped its operations to capitalize on this growth.

For the first half of 2024, EFresh reported group sales of $1.72 billion, an increase of 3.2% from the previous year, with $1.36 billion attributed to Jamaican operations and 359 .1 million dollars in the Bahamas. However, increased expenses and personnel costs affected profitability, resulting in a net profit of $43.1 million, down from $78.1 million in the same period last year.

“Increased costs are an investment that strengthens our capacity for future revenue growth,” Pullen noted, referring to the company’s recent hires in warehousing, purchasing and transportation.