Feb 2016 Financial News

New charges at Carib Cement

Feb 24, 2016

CARIBBEAN Cement Company Limited (CCCL) announced yesterday that effective March 1, clients who purchase goods from its Mandeville, Discovery Bay, Port Antonio and Montego Bay depots will be subject to a freight charge.

Sophia Lowe, corporate communication and public affairs manager, said that clients who buy direct from the factory in Rockfort, Kingston, will not pay this new charge.

“Customers purchasing from our depots will pay a portion of the costs for freight. These partial freight costs are subject to change and they are dependent on factors such as oil prices and the depreciation of the Jamaican dollar,” the company said in a related release.

Sales manager at CCCL, Alice Hyde said that customers are being asked to pay just about 50 per cent of the cost of moving goods from factory to depots around the island. “Each area has a different cost. They will be paying some of it, not all,” she explained.

In November 2015, CCCL and Tank-Weld Metals (TW Metals) signed an agreement for Tank-Weld Metals to distribute locally produced Carib Cement to the Jamaican market. Tank-Weld was a pervious importer and distributor of cement. The deal gave CCCL more market share.

The agreement was that Carib Cement would be transported by sea from the CCCL Rockfort Pier to the TW Metals Rio Bueno Port in Trelawny for further distribution to the northern-based construction market using Tank-Weld’s distribution capabilities.

Hyde said that the freight charge applied to its own distribution network, not areas served by Tank-Weld.

On Tuesday, CCCL said it was also offering a discount to those who buy using cash.

“Customers making cash purchases will benefit from an additional 1.5 per cent discount on all purchases made from the company,” it was stated, with CCCL noting that this was in addition to a 0.5 per cent discount that was implemented in October 2015.

The company said in its release that despite an inflation rate of 7.13 per cent over the last 20 months, it has been “able to offer savings to cement consumers as the company recognises that at this time any opportunity for savings is important and welcomed”.

CCCL said that it has been investing in improving efficiencies “which has made room for the additional discount to our customer base”.

Source:
BY AVIA COLLINDER 
collindera@jamaicaobserver.com
Business reporter 
Jamaica Observer
R03;Wednesday February 24, 2016    

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business/New-charges-at-Carib-Cement-_52650