CAC 2000 scouting for temporary location away from roadworks
AIR CONDITIONING company CAC 2000 Limited will set up a temporary store away from the roadworks at Three Miles in Kingston that, it says, has disrupted normal walk-in business at its Marcus Garvey Drive head office.
A quarter of CAC’s sales come from walk-in customers.
“We are actively looking for a pop-up location. We were fine up to two to three weeks ago, but then they made inroads to our gate ,” said CA C chairman and CEO Steven Marston.
Marston wants to open the new storefront within weeks, but is still scouting for a location.
The roadworks at Three Miles began earlier this year and will extend into late 2019. The improvement works, which are meant to address traffic congestion, were contracted to China Harbour Engineering Company by the Jamaican Government, through the National Works Agency.
CAC remains open for business, but access to its entryway is restricted due to road blockages and construction equipment, often making it difficult for containers delivering the AC units its supplies to reach its complex.
“Every day, things are changing,” Marston said regarding the continuous diversion of access routes.
EMPLOYEE ATTENDANCE
He adds that employee attendance has also been adversely affected due to the difficulty of the daily commute, and health issues that have arisen, including asthma, while travel times for technicians dispatched from the Marcus Garvey Drive base to customer locations have lengthened.
CAC will also lose front parking spaces and some infrastructure due to the compulsory acquisitions to accommodate the widened road, but will get additional parking spaces at other parts of its complex.
A number of businesses have reported a reduction in earnings arising from the ongoing road work, but CAC, in its financial results for the third quarter ending July, reported a 23 per cent increase in revenue, from $231 million to $285 million. The company made nearly $19 million of net profit in the quarter, reversing a loss of $1.6 million in the year-prior period.
The spike in sales resulted from new business, including billings of two large BPO outsourcing projects.
“We were doing four large BPO projects and two of them were substantially closed in the quarter, which contributed to sales,” Marston said. CAC also partnered with Eppley Limited to provide financing to clients to facilitate the acquisition of airconditioning units, allowing its clients to stagger their payments.
Over nine months ending July, revenue rose 14 per cent, from $799 million to $909 million, while net profit increased by 45.5 per cent from nearly $50 million, or 39 cents per share, to $72.5 million, or 56 cents per share.
CAC redeemed $148 million of preference shares in July and issued another $200 million worth of prefs at 9.5 per cent for working capital support. It also repaid a $100-million bridge loan in April, which was secured in October 2017 at an interest rate of 6.75 per cent.