Swot Analysis Of Grace Kennedy

GraceKennedy (GK) is one of the Caribbean’s largest and most dynamic Food and Finance corporate entities started in Jamaica in 1922. The operations of GK span the areas of food processing and distribution, banking and finance, insurance, remittance services, agricultural inputs and building material retailing.
Global Appearance
GraceKennedy Foods is a division of the GraceKennedy Group and is responsible for the distribution of Grace Brands and Grace owned brands in over 40 countries. GK has 60 subsidiaries and associated companies across the Caribbean, The UK, Africa, North and Central America. In Jamaica, Canada, Belize, Ghana and the United Kingdom they distribute through subsidiaries based in these countries. For the rest of the world,

GraceKennedy Group has a total consolidated value of J$101.8mil assets and total consolidated equity of J$38.2 mil. EPS of the company was reported at J$9.90 a 4cents increase from 2013. The Company paid dividends totalling J$2.33 per share in 2014 compared to J$2.18 in 2013, an increase of 6.9%. At the end of 2014, the GraceKennedy stock price closed at J$61.03, a 10.8% increase over the prior year, despite there being a 5.3% decline of the Jamaica Stock Exchange Market Index over the same period.GraceKennedy Financial Group performed creditably with good growth in profits, largely as a result of the strong performance of the Money Services and Insurance segments.
Cost of Capital Analysis
The GraceKennedy Group’s objectives when managing capital are to safeguard the Group’s ability to continue as a going concern in order to provide returns for owners and benefits for other stakeholders and to maintain an optimal capital structure to reduce the cost of capital.
During 2014, the Group’s Strategy, which was unchanged for 2013, was to maintain a debt to equity ratio not exceeding 100%. The debt equity ratios at 31 December 2014 is a

Exposure to credit risk is managed in part by obtaining collateral and corporate and personal guarantees. Counterparty limits are established by the use of a credit classification system, which assigns each counterparty a risk rating. Risk ratings are subject to regular revision.
Liquidity Risk
Liquidity risk is the risk that the company is unable to meet its payment obligations associated with its financial liabilities when they hall due and to replace funds when they are withdrawn. GK’s liquidity management process, as carried out within the Group through the ALCOs and treasury departments includes: o Monitoring future cash flows and liquidity on a daily basis o Maintaining a portfolio of highly marketable and diverse assets that can easily be liquidated as protection against any unforeseen interruption to cash flow o Maintaining committed lines of credit
Currency Risk
Currency risk is the risk that the fair value or future cash flows of a financial instrument will fluctuate because of changes in foreign exchange rates. GK manages its foreign exchange risk by ensuring that the net exposure in foreign assets and liabilities is kept to an acceptable level by monitoring currency