普尔斯玛特 2023年度报告

Dear Stockholders, For our fiscal year 2024 which ended on August 31, 2024, PriceSmart continued to produce astrong financial performance. Revenues were $4.9 billion, an 11.4% increase over the prior year.Earnings were $138.9 million compared with $109.2 million in the prior year, an increase of27.2%. Operating cash flow was $207.6 million, and stockholders’ equity increased to $1.12 billion. Fiscal year 2024 was an especially rewarding year for me because of the progress we havemade in our business and the positive impact PriceSmart continues to have on the lives of so manypeople—employees, Members, suppliers, and our communities. We are making many improvements in our business, but I would like to highlight three that areproving to be especially impactful: distribution centers, our US income initiatives, and investment intechnology. We currently have major distribution centers in Miami, Costa Rica, and Panama. We are nowadding distribution centers in Guatemala, Trinidad, and the Dominican Republic while continuing todetermine the best location for a future distribution center in Colombia. We believe these in-countrydistribution centers will provide numerous advantages, including shortening the time to market forimported products, lowering the net landed cost for most of our merchandise, providing better in-stocks, reducing handling expenses, providing a cost-effective way to fulfill PriceSmart.com orders,and possibly reducing the cost of building and equipping our PriceSmart locations. Along withadditional distribution centers, we are beginning to operate our own fleet of trucks to delivermerchandise from our distribution centers and to pick up merchandise from our suppliers. Related to our US income initiatives, although we do not operate PriceSmart locations in theUnited States, we do generate profits in the United States because of the markup we make on productssourced by our US buyers and sold to PriceSmart locations in the countries in which we operate, andour US parent company earns a royalty from sales made at PriceSmart locations. All this income isconsidered foreign-sourced income. When we file our income taxes, we offset this foreign-sourcedincome against foreign tax credits, so there ends up being no US tax on foreign-sourced income. Wehave been aware of and taken advantage of this tax benefit for many years, but we typically have moreforeign tax credits than we can use. As a result, more recently, we are being more proactive in gainingmore benefits from foreign tax credits. For example, we have set up a new business in the US, anexport division, selling merchandise primarily to businesses in countries where PriceSmart does notcurrently have clubs. The profits made on these sales qualify as foreign-sourced income. Relatedto technology,PriceSmart historically has underinvested in technology.Thetechnology investments we are prioritizing now are for supply chain enhancements, back-officeproductivity improvements, and initiatives to both optimize and transform the brick and mortarexperience and to make the digital experience more efficient and Member-centric. In fiscal year 2024,we launched several new technology initiatives related to merchandise procurement, supply chain,point of sale, and PriceSmart.com. We believe that this heightened focus on technology and processimprovement will result in numerous benefits, including better stock and inventory control, lowerlabor costs, an improved Member experience, and a better online shopping experience for our businessand retail Members. It goes without saying that investment in technology is expensive; however, wefeel confident that these investments will pay off. In addition to the positive results we are experiencing with our PriceSmart business, I feel evenmore gratified by the positive impact our business is having on our employees and the communities inwhich we do business. I am so proud of the fact that PriceSmart has an outstanding record related toemployee retention. Many of our employees have been with our company for more than 20 years. Theloyalty and spirit of our employees have been built up over many years and are based on excellent payand benefits, a respectful and welcoming work environment, and opportunities for advancement asPriceSmart continues to grow. We also believe it is our mission to find synergies and win/win situations in the communities inwhich we operate. One way we do this is by partnering with Price Philanthropies Foundation’sAprender y Crecer program which provides free school supplies and eyeglasses to thousands of low-income children. The purchasing of school supplies and eyeglasses leverages the buying power ofPriceSmart. Also, our recently formed PriceSmart Foundation is making grants to non-profits tosupport youth employment training and to help small businesses improve their operations. Moreorganically, PriceSmart is fostering entrepreneurship in the countries in which we do business. First,many smaller Price