Blue Emerald Limited encountered obstacles in its registration as a special economic zone, mainly due to problems related to the leased property where it operates.

Blue Emerald’s major shareholder, FosRich, leased a 25-acre complex and its two buildings from the Jamaica State Factory Company, each with a floor area of ​​60,000 square feet. One of the buildings has two PVC manufacturing plants, and the other building is dedicated to transformer repairs.

Cecil Foster, CEO of FosRich, said that he expects the matter to be resolved soon, but is not precise about the cause of the obstacle.

"This is actually a technical issue between the owner, the FCJ and our legal representatives. Now things are going well, the document should be passed, and we expect this matter to be resolved in a very short time."

Foster said that at present, with the support of FosRich as the parent company and the 80% owner of Blue Emerald, the operation of the factory is still continuing, and the production of PVC parts and the repair of transformers have not been affected.

The Blue Emerald business is part of FosRich's three-year expansion plan, which entered the PVC pipe market three years ago and received strong market response.

Year-to-date September, the sales of PVC products have increased by 50% year-on-year; hardware has increased by 79%; control equipment has increased by 66%; FosRich's nine-month financial report shows that solar system components accounted for 116%.

Revenue in the third quarter increased from 534 million U.S. dollars in the same period in 2020 to 591 million U.S. dollars, driving a 9-month revenue growth of 21% to 1.7 billion U.S. dollars.

With this performance, the company has surpassed its full-year performance in 2019, while achieving a record full-year revenue of $1.9 billion in 2020. Net profit was US$179 million, an increase of US$104 million from US$75 million, or 138% in the same period of 2020.

The company pointed out that the increase in sales volume, commodity prices and the supply of products needed by the market are the reasons for the increase in revenue.

At the same time, FosRich said that although the government imposed more lockdown days as part of the COVID-19 strategy, the number of days its stores opened in August decreased, but the growth in the third quarter was achieved.

"August sales were $100 million lower than July sales. Gross profit for the quarter was $236 million, compared to $216 million in the previous reporting period," FosRich said.

The lighting and electrical company went public at the end of 2017 and listed on the stock market, selling a range of lighting and electrical equipment, switchgear, hardware products, and electrical and solar panels.

FosRich was founded in 1993 and has three employees. It now has 84 employees in seven locations in Kingston, Mandeville and Montego Bay. Approximately 60 other employees work at its two manufacturing locations in Kingston and Hayes in Clarendon.