David Whitehead has another good year

Textile giant David Whitehead continued on its recovery path with sales increasing by nearly 300 percent from $4.1 billion to $16.3 billion.

In its report for the year ending September, the company says local sales grew from $3.9 billion to nearly $15 billion while exports shot up from $137.5 million to $1.4 billion.

The increase in exports was a deliberate effort by the company to try to meet its foreign currency requirements.

The company had installed an additional printing machine but it had identified further bottlenecks. It was, therefore, rectifying them and, once completed, it expected to increase production of export fabrics significantly.

Profit before tax improved from $146.1 million to $826.2 million with net profit increasing from $106.6 million to $798.2 million.

The company says the price of cotton lint increased by more than 400 percent between January and September largely due to the falling dollar and the firming of world cotton prices but it had improved production levels at its three plants – spinning, fabrics and hosiery.

It had been assured of continued supply of lint and was raising its working capital to increase its stock holdings as a way of hedging against the ever-increasing local price of lint.

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