Anthony Ali Named Barbados’ Top CEO of 2023 by Businessuite

ANTHONY H. ALI, B.Sc. (Hons.), M.B.A.
Anthony Ali spent most of his career in Canada, where he worked in the areas of Operations, Sales, Marketing, Customer Allegiance and Strategic Planning for a number of Canadian and United States of America Fortune 500 companies.

Before joining Goddard Enterprises Limited in 2013 as Managing Director, Mr. Ali worked with SM Jaleel & Co. Ltd. in Trinidad and Tobago where he served as General Manager from 2010- 2013.

Upon graduating from the University of Toronto in 1988 with a B.Sc. Honours Degree in Chemistry, Mr. Ali worked at National Silicates as a Research Chemist, and later as its Business Development Manager. He completed a post graduate degree in Executive Marketing at the University of Western Ontario in 1992 and several other Leadership and Management programmes.

In 1993, Mr. Ali was selected from 6,000 employees of Abitibi-Price Inc. to participate in a fellowship at McKinsey & Co.

In 2005, he joined Thermo Fisher Scientific as Global Director of Operations and Customer Allegiance before moving to Enerworks Inc. where he served as Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Customer Allegiance.

Mr. Ali has served on several Boards in the Energy field and is currently a director of Electrical Industries Group Ltd. He is the co-author of several publications.

Goddard Enterprises Limited

The Group’s consolidated revenue and income before taxation from continuing operations for the year ended 30 September 2022 amounted to $968.8 million and $80.0 million respectively, compared with $749.6 million and $27.7 million respectively in the previous year. Earnings per share (basic) was $0.22 compared with $0.10 in 2021.
For the financial year ended 30 September 2022, Group revenue increased by 29.2% over the prior year to $968.8 million. This increase was attributable to a number of reasons including the strong rebound of the Catering group in both Airline and Industrial Catering.

Continued growth in the Building Supplies Division across the region, continued performance within the Manufacturing Division and the impact of the restructuring across all of the businesses in 2020 and 2021 which materialised in the year, contributed to the result.

Challenges in our bakery operations and at Precision Packaging Inc. and poor automotive sales mainly due to the lack of supply of vehicles were the major dampening effects on an otherwise credible performance by the Group.

Gross Profit for the year was positively impacted and finished at $398.2 million, compared with $272.6 million in 2021, an increase of 46%.

Selling, marketing and administrative expenses were $339.4 million compared with $260.4 million in the prior year, which represented an increase of 30%, mainly due to the dramatic increase in the Catering business.

During the year, airlift increased and returned to approximately 85% of the pre-COVID-19 period, faster than originally anticipated. This resulted in the re-hiring of staff to support the significant increase of sales associated with the return of historical flights and Industrial Catering volumes.

Concomitant with the volume increase in the overall Group’s growth and recovery, the opportunity was taken to invest in both people and resources to support the Group’s results into 2023.

Other gains/(losses) – net decreased to $5.1 million or 44% compared with the prior period of $9.0 million. This negative impact was associated with two main items, namely the loss in rental income related to Haggatt Hall Holdings Limited and a loss related to the revaluation of freehold land and buildings.

Profit from operations improved from $24.1 million in 2021 to $66.8 million in 2022, resulting in an improvement in income before taxation from continuing operations of $80.0 million or a 189% improvement over 2021 representing the best year in the Company’s one hundred years of existence.

Net Income for the period was significantly improved to $66.8 million in 2022 compared with $21.0 million in the prior year, which was driven by strong recovery in the Catering Division and solid performance by all of the other Divisions, all contributing to set a record year.

The overall increase in taxation of $6.5 million was as a result of a general increase in profits across the entire Group.

Our share of income of associated companies increased by $9.5 million to $25.0 million over the period and was mainly due to the excellent performance of Caribbean Distribution Partners Limited which itself had a record performance year.

Considering the Group’s consolidated balance sheet, our working capital ratio at 1.73 was marginally above prior year’s ratio and reflected adequate control over the number of days of inventories and trade receivables.

The total assets of the Group’s business was financed by 39% debt, which was a slight increase compared with prior period.

Our net asset value per share now stands at $2.80 compared with $2.53 in 2021, an increase of $0.27 per share.
Our share price moved to $2.95 per share as of 30 September 2022 compared with $2.07 as of 30 September 2021.

Managing Director’s Outlook
We entered 2022 with the certainty that we could not predict how the COVID-19 pandemic would continue to impact the fiscal year 2022. During the first 3 months of the year, most regions where we operate were still under COVID-19 restrictions.

Plagued with high fuel costs, soaring inflation and global logistical problems, we were sure of one thing – UNCERTAINTY.

During the year, the Board and the Executives met to discuss our future and how we could influence the things within our control. Having experienced the vulnerability of the Group to external perturbation, we have embarked on a strategy to diversify the businesses within each division or to drive automation where possible.

This has led to the Catering Division making a number of acquisitions beyond our Airline Catering business, with the most recent acquisition, which was completed subsequent to the year end, of the fast-food business of International Meals Company in the Panama airports which are complimentary to the Division’s core business.

The Manufacturing Division has planned expansion and automation of some of its operations aimed at lowering costs and enhancing production, allowing it to be more competitive.

The Group continues to actively seek out opportunities to diversify its portfolio and expand its geographic reach consistent with our areas of core business.

Focus on business simplification, standardisation, common IT platforms, shared services and common back-end infrastructure across the region and within each industry remains critical to the Group’s continued growth and profitability.

Energy management and sustainability have become critical parts of our core operational strategy. This year, the Group installed 4 new photovoltaic (PV) systems in Barbados and is exploring projects in Saint Lucia and Grenada.

The Group commits to constantly explore innovative ways to manage its costs and to be respectful to the environment in which we operate.

See original article here.