Spur Tree Spices Jamaica Limited

What it is

Spur Tree manufactures and distributes seasonings, sauces, spices, canned ackee, and callaloo, primarily for the export market. About 95% of sales are export — so the company is essentially a Jamaican food exporter that happens also to sell at home.

It runs two business segments: Spices & Other, and Canned Products. The canned-products arm — ackee and callaloo under the Linstead Market brand — generates the larger share of group revenue, but the spices segment produces the bulk of profits, contributing JMD 111.3 million in segment earnings against JMD 19.5 million from canned products.

Who owns it

Founder Harrinarine “Mohan” Jagnarine held 34.32% of the company at IPO, making him the controlling shareholder; as of December 2023, he still held approximately 31%, with CEO Albert Bailey at roughly 15.5%.

GK Investments Limited — part of the GraceKennedy food and financial-services conglomerate — has since built its stake to just over 20.18%, positioning it as the second-largest owner. The remaining shares trade freely on the Jamaica Stock Exchange’s Junior Market, where the company listed in January 2022 following an IPO brokered by GK Investments itself.

Who runs it

Albert Bailey is CEO of Spur Tree Spices. Metry Seaga serves as chairman of the board.

The company’s commercial plan, which Bailey leads, took shape in 2006 when it first targeted food-service supply. A CFO name is not disclosed in available sources; the company has 148 employees.

The money, in plain words

For the year ended December 2025, Spur Tree earned a net profit of JMD 116.5 million (USD 743,000), up 19.6% year on year, on revenue of JMD 1.79 billion (USD 11.4 million), itself 14.6% higher than 2024. It kept about 6.5 cents of profit from every Jamaican dollar of sales — a net profit margin of 6.5% (our calculation), moderate for a small food exporter still carrying acquisition costs.

The company’s trailing price-to-earnings ratio of roughly 65× — meaning investors are paying 65 years’ worth of current annual profit for each share — is well above the Jamaican food industry average of around 15×, reflecting the market’s bet on strong future growth rather than today’s earnings. Over three years, earnings per share have grown at about 17% per year, but the share price has fallen 27% annually, suggesting the valuation premium has been compressing.

What it is doing now

As of May 2026, the company is planting roughly 3,000 ackee trees to build a 60-to-75-acre orchard through one of its two ackee-producing subsidiaries — a direct response to a supply crunch it cannot solve by buying from third parties alone. Bailey says demand for ackee “far outstrips the supply,” and the orchard is the long answer: ackee trees take three to four years to fruit and seven to reach full production.

In the first quarter of 2026, revenue reached JMD 372 million (USD 2.37 million), up 11% from Q1 2025, and net income was JMD 19.3 million (USD 123,000), up 3.6%. The full-year 2025 gains arrived despite Hurricane Melissa hitting in the fourth quarter; management said the company had been on course for its strongest year on record before the storm made landfall.

What to watch

• Ackee supply recovery. Jamaica’s ackee exports earned USD 18.1 million in 2024, down from USD 26 million in 2023, with hurricane damage the main cause. A normal 2026 crop season is the single biggest near-term revenue lever.
• Margin discipline. The spices segment drives most profit; spices segment profit rose sharply from JMD 74.8 million in 2024 to JMD 111.3 million in 2025. Keeping that trend alive as raw-material and distribution costs rise is the margin test.
• Export-market reach. Target markets include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, and Panama. Securing shelf space and digital presence — including partnerships with Amazon and Walmart online — will determine how fast the revenue ceiling rises.
• GraceKennedy’s role. With GK Investments at 20%, a food conglomerate that also makes spices sits as the second-largest owner. Whether that leads to a distribution partnership or a deeper corporate move is the governance question to track.

This is news, not investment advice.