Company Information

H&L wading through COVID-19

November 2020

Hardware & Lumber (H&L), Jamaica's leading construction, agriculture and home improvement retail chain is pointing to the possibility of returning to the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) at some future date but not at this time.

Managing director of H&L Marcus Richards shied away from making any concrete pronouncement about H&L returning to public hands, only to say that returning to the JSE is a distinct possibility. H&L delisted from the JSE in May 2016 after Argyle Industries Inc acquired control of the company on December 30, 2015, when it purchased the majority shareholding of GraceKennedy Limited.

Since then H&L, which was founded in 1927 by the Henriques Brothers, has been operating as a private company, wholly owned by Argyle, which is domiciled in Castries, St Lucia.

Speaking at a recent Jamaica Observer Business Forum, Richards, who dubs himself the Chief Servant at H&L, stated that the company has no need for public equity at this time.

He did not discount the possibility that this could become a necessity in the near future, while pointing out that the current, challenging business environment with COVID-19 poses a lot of potential for strategic partnership and acquisition of struggling companies. In such a scenario, the H&L chief servant sees a possible return to the JSE to seek funding to exploit any such business opportunity. 

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