Fontana pays launches luxury cosmetic brand, funds Monarch acquisition

 



In  March, Scotia Investments Jamaica Limited was the lead arranger for a $950 million bond raise for Fontana Pharmacy.

Total assets for this Fontana at the end of the March  quarter stood at $6.9 billion or 21.8 per cent  above the $5.7 billion recorded in the same period last year. This increase resulted primarily from increases in inventory, fixed assets and goodwill due to the acquisition of the Monarch chain of pharmacies, which was financed by a  bond issue in the amount of J$650 million.

 Fontana in its report for the third quarter ended March 2025 stated, “During this (March) quarter, we continued the implementation of our new integrated POS system for our pharmacy department as well as additional modules of our new HR software coupled with payroll integrations which will result in improved efficiencies in our operations. We executed our due diligence exercise for the Monarch acquisition proficiently and were able to open the first of the four stores on March 28th , 2025.

 CEO, Anne Chang stated ‘we are excited about the additional four locations from the Monarch acquisition and have spent the last several weeks renovating and re-stocking the stores with a wide array of new products.

“We have now re-opened the  of the stores (Barbican Loshusan, Portmore Sovereign, Tropical Plaza) and are making the necessary changes to open the 4th store at Sovereign Centre shortly. This will expand our reach and allow us to serve more customers at their convenience.”

During the quarter, Fontana also concluded preparations for the launch of a luxury brand cosmetics concept – Ora by Fontana.

Chang said, “ Through this concept, we are the exclusive retailer of Fenty cosmetic products in Jamaica as well as popular luxury perfumes.”

The CEO Anne indicates that the brands were” successfully launched in Kingston and Montego Bay in early April, and customer response has been overwhelmingly positive. We anticipate that with these initiatives, we will continue to grow our customer base, increase revenues and further strengthen the Fontana brand in the market.”

Revenue for Fontana the quarter was $2.2 billion, representing an increase of 15.3 per cent  over the $1.9 billion for the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Profit before tax grew by 13.6 per cent , closing the quarter at $122.4 million compared to the $107.7 million earned last year.

 Cost of sales increased by 15.4 per cent  in line with the sales growth, the company reported a net profit for the quarter of $102.8 million or 10.6 per cent  more than that reported for the corresponding quarter last year.

 

Earnings per share moved from $0.07 last year to $0.08 for Q3 this year.

Cash and cash equivalents remain strong at $1.7 billion, up 15 per cent  from the previous year. Shareholders’ equity grew 9.7 per cent  to $3.1 billion, up from $2.8 billion in the prior corresponding quarter.

Caribbean Money Limited

Picture: Jamaicadawta.com

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