Banks DIH modernizes after record profits – Reis
By Leon Suseran
Chairman of Banks DIH Limited, Clifford Reis, has stated that the company is undergoing a modernization like no other time in its history. This announcement was made at the company’s 18th Berbice Shareholders’ reception at Peter D’Aguiar Street, Banks Tarmac, New Amsterdam on Sunday.
This modernization, he stated, includes a new pasteurizer, a new equipment for the soft drink plant, a new water well—up to 400 gallons per minute—and soon 800 gallons per minute, a new ice-cream plant, a new boiler, new generators, etc. Reis added, too, that the company is heading sharply towards more automation, meaning that the machinery is doing the brunt of the work, with just a handful of human labour overseeing these operations. He, however, stated that the company has never seen the need to lay-off any employee since that was not required in the “family company”, rather workers were moved to other areas in the business. “You have guys sit down with laptops and this machine produced Coca Cola and Sprite—fills the bottles to the perfect height and the speed it comes off with, the humans just cannot compete with it”, he noted. A new brew house, fully automated, will be operational within 6 weeks and will enable the company to produce more than 400,000 cases of beer per month—900 bottles per minute or 42, 43 cases per minute!” The company, the Chairman said, is also becoming more and more self-sufficient in terms of its basic operational requirements—water, electricity, etc. The company is producing 4.4 Megawatts of power, and another 1.7MW will be added shortly. “We do not depend on anyone beyond the fence of Banks and we produce energy cheaper than GPL”, he stated, to loud applause from the gathering. Banks DIH was once asked to manage Guyana Power & Light Inc (GPL)…”that’s a long story”, he stated jokingly. “Your company has taken these decisions to make sure that we fulfill the dreams of our shareholders and investors”. In another year, a brand-new fleet of vehicles will be added. New Amsterdam will benefit from a spanking new Citizen’s Bank branch. “We have completed 80 per cent of the approval to build this new bank up here – and we hope that it will finish within 15 months and you will have your own bank—a replica of what the Head Office looks like because what we want to do is to brand the bank just like we brand Coca Cola and Banks Beer”. “The soft drink industry is doing well; the brewery industry is doing well; even Guinness Stout has shown an increase of 25 per cent.” For the first time in the history of the Caribbean, he said, Banks DIH sold 93,000 cases of Guinness in December, surpassing the 56,000 cases it sold during the year. The company recorded more successes. In December, the company sold more than 1 million units of cases of products…Never in the history of this company have we done that!” He praised his Berbice Operations manager, Mr Reginald ‘Reggie’ Matthews, for selling more than $2B… “a fantastic number and he not only sold it—but thanks to the consumers who drank it— $2B is not an easy number—Reggie sold 1.4M units of products (a 14 per cent increase)…We are talking about 24 billion bottles of products.” Berbice Manager, Mr Matthews praised the company’s prudent environmental practice capability of having a new fleet of trucks. More recently a forklift that works with propane gas [no fumes] was added to the fleet. “We are not only making profits, but we are respecting the environment”. The New Amsterdam ‘Qik Serv’ Restaurant has increased its sales in spite of competition right around it, selling $90.5M, an increase of 13 per cent over the previous year. Sales are on the increase for the local restaurant chain, ne noted. “We remain number one when it comes to cleanliness and service!” Export sales through Berbice also generated revenue of $22M. Banks DIH recorded $4B profit in 2011compared to $3.081B in 2010, an increase of $955M or 31 percent. The company’s net profit increased from $1.362B in 2010 to $1.934B in 2011 reflecting an increase of $572.0M or 42 per cent.