Company Information

H&L goes after Caricom

January 2023

Hardware & Lumber (H&L) has set its eyes on regional expansion chiefly for its wholesale business as it grapples with a change in spending patterns in Jamaica.

"The agro business is set to grow regionally and our wholesale businesses are on a regional growth trajectory," Marcus Richards, managing director of Hardware and Lumber, told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

"Most of the stuff that we sell are in demand in other territories and so building on our supply chain expertise, we are making them available to other territories. We have great brands, amazing infrastructure and so we are now extending our vision outside of Jamaica."

Richards said Hardware & Lumber's wholesale businesses – H&L Agro, which sells to farm stores and farms – and H&L Wholesale, which sells to hardware stores, projects, developers and contractors – have already started to explore for business opportunities across Caricom countries.

"The beauty of the wholesale businesses is that they are not block and steel. They are really relationship- and salesperson-driven and so that makes it easier for us to expand," he pointed out. Richards said the company started to manoeuvre for the regional markets last year and is hoping to start reaping success from the efforts this year especially in the bigger countries of Belize, Suriname, Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

Hardware & Lumber operates six business lines. Its H&L Agro subsidiary has both a retail and wholesale componet. H&L Rapid True Value operates only as a retail entity. A fourth entity, H&L Wholesale, caters to business to business customers. The other two subsidiaries are Regency Blinds in which Hardware & Lumber acquired a majority stake in 2021. The company also recently launched its courier service Brown Box.

However, Richards said the retail businesses are not under consideration for regional expansion right now. "The investment capital required to grow those externally is significant, so we have to prepare for that differently," he noted, while stating that if an opportunity comes up to take any of the retail brands to the other islands, he would explore it.

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