By: Kimberly Ramkhalawan
April 12, 2022
Trinidadian firm, Agostini’s, has announced a take over of long standing Barbados Pharmaceutical line Collins and its subsidiary, Carlisle Laboratories.
The TT Company is the umbrella agency for its local medical supplies representative Smith Robertson and Company as well as franchise holder of Israeli pharmacy chain, Superpharm.
Agostini’s put out the notice that it signed the sale and purchase agreement for Collins which has been in existence since 1888 while its manufacturing subsidiary, Carlisle Laboratories was established in 1961. The sale is said to be 100 percent inclusive of outstanding shares of those companies.
In Barbados, its local press reported the news “as a change of hands” of the 134- yea- old company to “a Trinidadian firm.” Carlisle Laboratories Limited has 40 total employees across all of its locations and is reported to generate an average of USD$3.31 million in sales. During the pandemic, the Barbados based company took up the mantle to produce additional hand sanitizer to meet the growing demand for personal hygiene on the go. Carlisle Labs are also known for several effective OTC drugs, such as Histatusin, Histal, Micospec and a wide variety of ointments, syrups and tablets.
While the Barbados pharma company is older in its experience and production, the Trinidadian owned Agostini’s Smith Robertson & Company Limited is also the largest pharmaceutical and personal care distributor in Trinidad and Tobago, having been established in 1894 and incorporated in March 1929.
The Company was initially in the indent business but added many additional agencies over the years. In 1998 Smith Robertson was acquired by Victor E. Mouttet Limited and restructured to focus only on its core business.
Just last year Agostini’s completed its acquisition of two other pharmaceutical companies—Oscar Francois Ltd and Intersol Ltd, reported to be worth well over $100M. Its pharma line Smith Robertson and Company is also in charge of bringing in several foreign brands to the Caribbean island manufactured by large corporations such as Astra Zeneca and Pfizer.
Agostini’s Ltd has also reported an increase in revenue of 17 per cent, up from $968 million to $1.14 billion for the first quarter of the 2021/2022 financial year.
Expansion of the company’s physical presence took place by July 2010 Smith Robertson moved its operations into a new purpose built office and distribution centre at Aranguez, San Juan which provides for significant expansion opportunities. Coinciding with this move, it was acquired by Agostini’s Limited and one year later the operations of Agostini Pharmaceuticals Limited (a subsidiary of Agostini’s Limited) were merged into Smith Robertson.
Its Superpharm operations was however established in 2004, opening its first store in 2005, and becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the Agostini’s Limited Group of Companies effective July 1st 2010. In recent weeks, the pharmacy chain announced a tenth location, and a recent upgrade to its Trincity branch, in North East Trinidad.