Dr. Eakapong Tungsrisanguan, Chief Financial Officer of JWD InfoLogistics Public Company Limited (JWD), ASEAN's recognized expert in logistics and supply chain, announced the overall business performance in 2020 showed higher total revenue than in previous year, although there have been challenges in operating under the conditions of economic slowdown and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Company posted a total revenue of 3,922.4 million baht - a 7.23-percent increase over the previous years' figure of 3,660.2 million baht. This was higher than the set target that aimed to maintain the total revenue at the 2019's figure. This is because most of the businesses showed increased revenue. However, some businesses have been adversely affected when the lockdown and curfew measures were imposed in the past year, such as the automotive and hazardous cargo warehousing and management businesses, resulting in the 2020 net profit of 290.0 million baht, compared to 362.8 million baht in 2019.
The 2020 total revenue was higher than the set target due to the general warehousing and cold storage businesses that grew more than 10 percent. At present, the cold storage business has the highest occupancy rate than in the past 3-4 years, because of increased demand and more long-term rental during the lockdown measure. Where the logistics infrastructure management business is concerned, the revenue also grew significantly as derived from the barge terminal operations that started the service in July 2020 in Laem Chabang Deep Sea Port, Chonburi Province and the movement of more than 10,000 containers of imports per month towards the end of the year. At the same time, the self-storage business also showed revenue growth.
Moreover, the food services business in Taiwan also made significant contribution with the exponential growth in revenue from the business in the preparation of raw materials for leading fast food chains, as well as the realization of profit sharing from the investment in Transimex Corporation, Vietnam's leading logistics service provider that has shown good performance in the year.
Most recently, the Board of Directors of JWD approved the dividend payment for the 2020 performance at 0.22 baht per share, totalling 224.4 million baht. The XD mark is expected to be posted in May 10 and the dividend payment is expected to be paid out on May 28, 2020.
Mr. Charvanin Bunditkitsada, Chairman of the Executive Committee and CEO of JWD, said the growth in the 2020 total revenue was a result of the strategy to expand and integrate the logistics and supply chain businesses as well as to broaden the investment in both Thailand and abroad, to linkup the ASEAN regional logistics network to achieve the most efficient integration, resulting in the Company's successfully tackling the economic challenges and the impact of the COVID-109 pandemic in the past year.
For 2021, with the Company's potential and capabilities, the year is expected to see a growth in revenue and profit, as the new wave of COVID-19 infection has not had serious impact on the economy as in the past year. In addition, the automotive business along with the hazardous material warehousing and management businesses of JWD has shown clear recovery with the Q4/2020 revenue higher than the previous quarter's. This year, these businesses are expected to continue growth.
The business situation from January until the present is considered to be good, with the cold storage business in Mahachai, Samut Sakhon Province unaffected by the new wave of COVID-19, while at present, the demand for storage is higher than the available space. The transport of goods at the Thailand-Myanmar is still operating normally although the time factor has slightly increased because of more stringent inspection. Moreover, increased revenue will be realized from the completed investment in business expansions, such as the opening of the new automatic document warehouse, the opening of the robotic cold storage warehouse (Building 9), the expansion of the coastal cargo terminal to support export cargo containers. These factors will definitely contribute to a strong performance this year.
Source: MT Multimedia