Carreras Limited has installed a new head of finance, Marcus Steele, who took up his posting Monday, in what is now his second Jamaican rotation at the tobacco company.

He succeeds Nigerian, Reynaldo Callejas, who departed Carreras on September 30, as finance director and company secretary.

No comment

The company said it would not comment on the 34-year-old Steele's appointment ahead of a press advertisement it intended to run.

Callejas has worked within the British American Tobacco group's Central America and Caribbean operations for 12 years, the last two and a half of which was with Carreras.

BAT owns 50.4 per cent of Carreras, a publicly listed company, which trades on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

Callejas' Carreras posting, since March 2005, coincided with the rationalisation programme that the cigarette company has just finalised, and which has stripped the Jamaican company of its manufacturing business - which included the winding up of the 45-year-old Cigarette Company of Jamaica Limited - to concentrate on tobacco marketing and distribution.

Carreras now buys cigarettes from its sister company in Trinidad, West Indies Tobacco, another publicly listed company which is 50.13 per cent owned by BAT.

The company, whose net profits dropped by $266 million to $2.8 billion last year on the back of near flat revenues of $7 billion (2006: $6.95 billion) has also rationalised its portfolio of products, dropping or "de-listing" Rothmans and Benson Hedges whose local markets have been waning, while launching Dunhill as a premium brand, and mid-range Pall Mall.

Steele, a 34-year-old chartered accountant educated at University of the West Indies and University of Florida, has worked for close to 10 years with BAT affiliated companies.

He comes to the company in the midst of what Carreras has acknowledged to shareholders is a fight to beat off competition for its mid-price products, as well as illicit imports that the company says have been 'illegally' avoiding duties.

Steele worked initially as company management accountant with Rothmans International Plc, another tobacco company that subsequently merged with BAT.

After the merger, in 1999 he was appointed Financial Planning Manager to Carreras. A year later, he was named marketing finance manager.

BAT's interest in Carreras is held by Rothmans Holdings (CARICOM) Limited which has 244,650,826 shares.

In 2003, Steele left Jamaica for Costa Rica, taking up the job as country readiness manager for BAT Caribbean and Central America in preparation for a shared service centre project.

In 2005, he was named financial planning manager for BAT Caribbean and Central America reporting to the financial director of the cluster.

susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com