Ja­maican con­glom­er­ate, GraceKennedy Lim­it­ed (GK) yes­ter­day re­port­ed prof­it af­ter tax to­talling J$8.9 bil­lion (US$57 mil­lion), for its fi­nan­cial year end­ed De­cem­ber 31, 2024.

Net prof­it at­trib­ut­able to stock­hold­ers was J$8.4 bil­lion, 8.1 per cent or J$633 mil­lion high­er than the cor­re­spond­ing pe­ri­od of 2023.

In 2024, GK’s to­tal div­i­dend pay-out was ap­prox­i­mate­ly J$2.35 bil­lion (US$15.06 mil­lion).

In a re­port on its fi­nan­cials by GraceKennedy chair­man, Gor­don Shirley, and group CEO, Frank James, the group said its food di­vi­sion achieved growth in 2024, de­liv­er­ing in­creased rev­enue and prof­it com­pared to 2023.

"Our Ja­maican food dis­tri­b­u­tion busi­ness de­liv­ered a ro­bust per­for­mance, with Grace Foods & Ser­vices achiev­ing growth across key prod­uct lines while en­hanc­ing op­er­a­tional ef­fi­cien­cy, which pos­i­tive­ly im­pact­ed its bot­tom line," said the group's di­rec­tors.

GraceKennedy's man­u­fac­tur­ing busi­ness al­so de­liv­ered im­proved re­sults com­pared to pri­or year, led by a strong per­for­mance, while its in­ter­na­tion­al food busi­ness "de­liv­ered strong re­sults in 2024."

GraceKennedy Fi­nan­cial Group de­liv­ered in­creased rev­enue and prof­it in 2024, com­pared to 2023.

"This im­proved per­for­mance was dri­ven by strong re­sults from our bank­ing and in­vest­ment seg­ment. First Glob­al Bank, our Ja­maican com­mer­cial bank, sur­passed its 2023 rev­enue and prof­it be­fore, pri­mar­i­ly at­trib­ut­able to no­table growth in its loan port­fo­lio, in­creased in­vest­ment in­come, and ef­fec­tive cost man­age­ment," the di­rec­tors said.

But GraceKennedy Mon­ey Ser­vices (GKMS) "ex­pe­ri­enced a de­cline in rev­enue and prof­it be­fore tax com­pared to 2023, large­ly due to re­duced trans­ac­tion ac­tiv­i­ty and low­er re­mit­tance flows in key mar­kets, par­tic­u­lar­ly Guyana," they said.