A replacement has been found for Dr Eileen Chin who has stepped down as managing director of Lasco Manufacturing Limited due to ill health.
Chin, a Cuban by birth and wife of Lasco Group Chairman Lascelles Chin, has run the manufacturing operation since 2007, three years before the group reorganised into three affiliates, which were listed on the junior stock market.
Lasco Foods became Lasco Manufacturing under the restructuring, but Chin has worked with the Lasco Group since 1999.
She oversaw the US$30-million first-round expansion of the manufacturing plant in the wake of the Lasco reorganisation, and the roll-out of new products, including iCool water, flavoured water and juice drinks. In the last quarterly earnings report signed off on by Chin, for the September to December 2014 period, Lasco Manufacturing's fixed assets were valued on its books at just over $1 billion, with another $2.26 billion of works in progress.
The year before that, the company's fixed assets were booked at $185 million, with $2.5 billion of works in progress.
The company's midline profit rose above half-billion dollars at the nine-month December 2014 mark, but expanded financing charges clipped its bottom line from $448 million or 11 cents per share to $426 million or 10 cents per share, year-on-year. Revenue ticked up from $2.9 billion to $3.3 billion in the period.
The company is still carrying over $1 billion of long-term debt, but that is a reduction from $1.48 billion a year ago. The debt is just over a third of the company's net value of $2.95 billion.
Chin stepped down on March 2 and was replaced on March 3 by Robert Parkins, who was appointed general manager. She sits on the boards of Lasco Manufacturing as well as affiliates Lasco Distributors Limited and Lasco Financial Services Limited, but there is as yet no indication that she has resigned her directorships.
Parkins' track record includes management of Salada Foods Jamaica Limited and Health Brands Limited, and positions with Seprod Limited, the JP Foods division of Jamaica Producers Group. He has "a strong background in engineering and manufacturing and extensive experience in the fast moving consumer goods industry," Lasco said in its press release.
Parkins holds a master's in business administration from the Nova Southeastern University and a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the University of the West Indies.
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