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FosRich Company Limited achieved higher sales volumes but falling revenue, due to cost declines for PVC and solar panels on the world market that were passed on to customers in the form of price reductions, it said in its report to shareholders.
Amid the fallout, the company has put its plans to enter the United States on hold, for now.
The lower turnover has come at a high cost for the company, which racked up combined losses of nearly $190 million over the first two quarters, extending from January to June 2025.
Revenue for January-March 2025 amounted to $852.9 million compared to $859.8 million in the similar period in 2024; for the June quarter sales plunged from $884.6 million to $734.4 million.
“You find that you have to sell three times more of the product to get back the same revenue that you got at the end of 2023,” FosRich Managing Director Cecil Foster said in an interview with the Financial Gleaner.
It required greater effort from the company’s small sales force of 15 persons backed by another 225-customer service and allied staff to boost the numbers.
Still Foster says he does not expect solar PV panel prices to fall back to pre-pandemic levels.
“It might move from eight cents to twelve cents, but they won’t go back up to whatever it was previously,” he said.
The market conditions currently favour the consumer since it makes the product so much cheaper. To make up for the falling revenue in that market segment, the company has been seeking out more project-related business.
“At the end of this first half into the third quarter and going forward, the number of projects that we are doing is out of this world. We’re doing 160 solar installations for homes now and through the NHT and we should have another 150 or so in our hands by next week,” Foster said, referring to state housing agency National Housing Trust.
By December, the increased business should allow FosRich to make up lost ground on revenues that affected the company in the first half of the year, he said.
FosRich is primarily a distributor of electrical, lighting, and solar energy products. It partners with large global brands seeking local distribution such as Huawei, Philips Lighting, Victron Energy, Siemens, NEXANS and General Electric. It also manufactures PVC pipes. The company has a staff complement of 240 people across 10 locations in Kingston, Clarendon, Mandeville in Manchester and Montego Bay in St James. It also has a team of energy and electrical engineers who offer technical advice and install solar energy systems, solar water heaters and electrical panel boards.
In the March quarter, FosRich sun from profit of $33 million to a loss of $68.6 million; in the June quarter, losses of $120.9 million erased profit of $44.9 million in the year prior. But Foster says he expects the company to return to black in the third quarter.
Apart from the decrease in prices for solar PV, FosRich says it was also affected by the slowness in housing-starts locally, caused primarily by higher interest costs. But now that the central bank has been cutting its policy rate, Foster said he is now optimistic that there will be more housing starts and therefore more business for FosRich.
Additionally, the company has struck partnerships with two Chinese companies – JA Solar Holdings Company Limited, a manufacturer of solar power products, including solar cells and modules; and Fox ESS, a developer of solar inverter and energy storage solutions. It also deal in solar products made by Huawei.
“That means we are now directly in their pocket, along with Huawei, and we are getting much better margins going forward as we speak,” Foster said of the new arrangements.
Meanwhile there has been a further delay in the completion of FosRich’s 76 Molynes Road superstore and headquarters complex. The project is now to be completed in the third quarter, the company said.
As for the halting of plans for the United States market, for now, Foster said the present air of uncertainty under the Trump regime dictates that the company adopt a wait-and-see posture.
English (US) ·