L.J. Williams Limited (Class B Ordinary Shares)

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What it is

Established in 1925, L.J. Williams Limited is one of Trinidad & Tobago’s — and the region’s — oldest companies.

It operates through four primary business divisions: Food and Allied, Hardware and Manufacturing, Shipping, and Retail.

Its distribution arm handles a variety of international food and beverage brands, while its manufacturing subsidiary, Movalite Limited, specialises in the fabrication and installation of glass and aluminium building façades. The group also operates The Home Store, a home-improvement retail chain with locations in Trinidad and Guyana.

The company is listed on the First Tier Market of the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange with three classes of shares: LJWA (Ordinary A), LJWB (Ordinary B) and preference shares LJWP. Only the Class B shares are the subject of this profile.

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Who owns it

L.J. Williams is, in every practical sense, a family company that has been public for decades.

It was founded by Louis Jay Williams, who in 1927 secured a contract for Green Pastures butter at a time when such branding was “virtually unheard of” in Trinidad.

The Williams family has retained management and board control across generations. The 2024 annual report names Thomas Jay Williams as Managing Director and Paul Jay Williams as a director — both family members sitting alongside independent directors.

The exact share percentage held by the Williams family is not disclosed in publicly available sources, but the dual-class share structure (A and B ordinary shares) is a common tool families use to concentrate voting power while allowing outside investors to hold economic shares.

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Who runs it

The board named in the audited 2024 annual report is: Lawford Dupres (Chairman), Thomas Jay Williams (Managing Director), Paul Jay Williams, Michal Andrews, Mariano Browne, and Aliyah Hamel-Smith. Chairman Dupres has been the public voice of the group’s restructuring effort, personally signing off on the decision to close two Home Store locations — Westmall and C3 in San Fernando — at the end of December 2024.

The company secretary is Adam Jay Williams — a third Williams family member in a governance role. A dedicated CFO is not identified separately in public filings; the 2024 annual report was signed by a Chief Accountant on 26 June 2024.

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The money, in plain words

Group sales for the nine months to December 31, 2024 were TT$129.7m (~US$19.3m), with profit before tax of TT$3.1m (US$461 k) — a partial recovery from a very difficult full year. For the full year ended 31 March 2024, the chairman’s review confirms revenue of TT$171m (~US$25.4m), down 4% from the prior year, with net profit collapsing to just TT$275,000 (~US$40,900) — a net margin of 0.16% (our calculation), compared to TT$5.9m (US$877 k) the year before.

That TT$275,000 (US$41 k)profit for the year ended March 31, 2024 represented a 95.3% decline compared to the TT$5.9m (US$877 k) the company earned in its 2023 financial year. The culprit was a double squeeze: supplier price increases cut through sell-through at retail points in the Food division, while discretionary spending fell sharply, hitting The Home Store hardest.

The market values the whole company at TT$33.6m (~US$5.0m) on the LJWB shares alone — a price-to-earnings ratio of roughly 122x (our calculation) on the near-zero FY2024 profit, a number that tells you almost nothing useful about value; it simply reflects that earnings fell to a rounding error while the share price held at TT$0.90. (US$0.13)

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What it is doing now

Recent operational changes include the consolidation of its retail footprint in Trinidad to focus on higher-performing locations, and the continued expansion of its profitable Guyana operations. The Home Store Guyana has continued to show growth and profit in the first nine months of the current year, with a second store opened in Goedverwagting on October 25, 2024.

Foreign exchange shortages and logistical issues are expected to continue challenging the business in 2025, but management is looking to improved results in the fiscal year ending March 2026, driven by the leaner Trinidad store base and a stronger Guyana contribution.

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What to watch

• Home Store restructuring: Two stores closed in late 2024; whether rental cost deals with landlords materialise will determine if Trinidad retail stops being a drag on group profit.
• Guyana expansion: The second Guyana store opened in Goedverwagting in October 2024 — its first full-year contribution in FY2026 is the single biggest swing factor for group earnings.
• Foreign exchange: The company is reviewing business operations to deal with the strains of foreign exchange availability — a system-wide problem in T&T that caps the import-heavy group’s ability to restock.
• Share class structure: Investors holding only LJWB should understand the dual-class structure; the exact voting balance between Class A and Class B has not been publicly detailed in available sources.
• Dividend: No dividend announcement was found in available sources for FY2024, consistent with the near-zero profit year.

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This is news, not investment advice.