SOS sells Collins Green property for premium dollars
STATIONERY & Office Supplies Limited, SOS, has sold t he quarteracre property it acquired at 36 Collins Green Avenue less than two years ago for little over $38 million, more than twice the value at which it acquired the property.
The buyer was not disclosed. SOS initially had planned to use the property for warehousing, but now says it’s not the best fit for its needs.
“SOS sold the property at Collins Green as it did not meet the requirements that we needed to place a new warehouse on,” Chairman Stephen Todd told the Financial Gleaner. “The opportunity to sell came up with a premium offer,” he added.
SOS booked a gain of $23.4 million on the sale of the property that was acquired back in September 2020 for $15 million. It sits adjacent to SOS’s headquarters at Collins Green Avenue.
The gain pushed SOS’s profits to $105 million in the first quarter, doubling the $55 million profit it made in the comparative period in 2021.
It’s the office supplies company’s best quarter since going public in 2017. Not only did the company make over a $100 million in a quarter for the first time, the January-March performance was equivalent to the profit it made over all 12 months in 2021.
Even without the one-off gain from the property sale, SOS would still have set a new quarterly earnings record at $81 million. It also set a new record for quarterly revenue, which rose above $400 million on core operations for the first time since its market début; and a new monthly sales record of $173 million in March.
Sales revenue at $427 million the quarter beat the respective 2021 quarter by 36 per cent. Almost every revenue line showed improvement, including the SEEK book operation, up 79 per cent year on year; chair sales, up 35 per cent; document destruction services, up 60 per cent; and the Image and Torch furniture line, up 50 per cent.
“These increases are a direct result of planning, and having the additional inventory on hand to be able to supply the market and not have to rely upon shipping schedules that continue to change on a regular basis,” said SOS Managing Director Allan McDaniel in the preamble to company’s first quarter results.
Money gained from the sale of the property will fund office and warehouse expansions, Todd said. SOS is currently expanding its Fairview, Montego Bay office.