Trinidad and Tobago conglomerate Massy Holdings is having a bittersweet time in Barbados.
Senior Massy officials reported last week that the company raised more than $200 million from the sale of the two Almond hotels in St Peter and Christ Church and they also said the controversial rebranding exercise undertaken last year was a success.
But chief financial officer Paula Rajkumarsingh lamented that due to “challenging conditions in the Barbadian economy” Massy’s retail and distrubution businesses in Barbados suffered a 32 per cent decrease in profits.
In her review of the group’s performance in 2014, Rajkumarsingh said the two remaining Almond properties here were sold for $200.9 million and that the cash “was used to repay third party debt from Almond Resorts Inc. and Casuarina Holdings Inc”.
She also said that cash used for investing activities excluding the two Barbados hotel property debts, increased by 119 per cent from $119.2 million in 2013 to $261 million in 2014.
There was no joy in the local retail and distribution businesses, with the six per cent increase in revenue offset by the double digit profit decline.
“The decline in profitability was attributable to challenging conditions in the Barbadian economy, resulting in the reduction in revenues and margins in the supermarket business and the weakened performance of our non-food side of the business,” she said.
Meanwhile, Massy chief executive officer Gervase Warner, commenting on the $18.1 million rebranding exercise which included refurbishing properties, installing signage, marketing and advertising costs, said the group’s 11 000 employees, including hundreds in Barbados, “all share the excitement and enthusiasm of working for a common group with a purpose that is bigger and all encompassing than any individual subsidiary’s purpose”.
“We have seen the transformation to have the widely positive effect of uncomplicating our lives, clarifying the group’s image, reshaping impressions retained by the general public, and of liberating energies to be more and do more. With Massy as the corporate brand, we successfully renamed all companies with key sub-brands which signify the core businesses. Attached to the sub-brands are descriptors, which then further segment the specific operations of specific companies,” he said.
“One advantage that immediately flowed from the rebranding and the reordering of former subsidiaries is that of collaboration. Where before there had existed weak or non-existent linkages, as companies retained veritable sovereignty within their silos of separation, possibilities opened up for interdependent and mutually beneficial operations.
“It has now become possible to cultivate the ecosystems, involving various companies within the group, interacting and networking with one another for the convenient and competitive supply of goods and services to customers. To facilitate many of these ecosystems, Massy loyalty cards and Massy credit cards will serve almost as passports, assuring customers’ access to rewards, credit, and other privileges for shopping with Group companies.
