NFM settles wage talks, posts $22.2m profit

Na­tion­al Flour Mills Lim­it­ed (NFM) has com­plet­ed wage ne­go­ti­a­tions with the Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers Trade Union (SWW­TU) for the pe­ri­od Jan­u­ary 2023 to De­cem­ber 2025.

NFM Chair­man Ham­lyn Jailal made the an­nounce­ment in the com­pa­ny’s unau­dit­ed fi­nan­cial state­ments for the six months end­ed June 30, 2026, say­ing NFM looked for­ward to build­ing a part­ner­ship with the union that would ben­e­fit both sides.

For the first half of 2026, NFM record­ed an af­ter-tax prof­it of $22.2 mil­lion, a 2.4 per cent de­cline from the $22.8 mil­lion re­port­ed in the same pe­ri­od last year.

Rev­enue in­creased 1.1 per cent to $263 mil­lion from $260 mil­lion, but cost of sales rose by $5.8 mil­lion, large­ly be­cause of high­er grain prices.

As a re­sult, gross prof­it fell 3.5 per cent to $78.9 mil­lion.

NFM’s to­tal as­sets in­creased to $559.5 mil­lion at June 30, 2026, from $527.9 mil­lion a year ear­li­er. Jailal at­trib­uted the in­crease to a sig­nif­i­cant re­duc­tion in amounts owed to cred­i­tors.

Look­ing ahead, Jailal said glob­al com­mod­i­ty mar­kets, freight costs and en­er­gy prices would con­tin­ue to in­flu­ence NFM’s cost struc­ture, while cost con­tain­ment would re­main a pri­or­i­ty.

“The out­look for the re­main­der of 2026 re­mains op­ti­mistic. Glob­al com­mod­i­ty mar­kets, freight costs and en­er­gy prices will con­tin­ue to in­flu­ence NFM's cost struc­ture,” he said.

“The Board will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor mar­ket con­di­tions and will take ap­pro­pri­ate mea­sures to pro­tect the com­pa­ny's fi­nan­cial po­si­tion and long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty.”