Bermuda Press Holdings Ltd, the owner of The Royal Gazette, is reporting an unaudited loss of $568,000 for the first half of the year, as compared with a $33,000 profit for the same period in 2023.

In a filing with the Bermuda Stock Exchange, the company has reported to shareholders that operating revenue decreased 3.8 per cent to $9.176 million for the six months ended March 31, as compared with $9.541 million for the same period in 2023.

The company said: “Management continues to navigate the company through the challenges local companies are facing in Bermuda, with a diminishing local economy and inflation.”

Some of the challenges evident in the key financial highlights include:

• Publishing revenues are down by 5.1 per cent, as local advertisers face their own challenges with the economy, impacting their expenditure on marketing and recruitment ads

• The company has been faced with rising costs of direct materials and staff costs, and reduced demand for office equipment

• The commercial printing operation has seen rising costs, and, the transition to digital marketing, online forms and record keeping, combined corporate sustainable initiatives, has resulted in less demand for printed materials

• Lease expiries have led to a decrease in rental revenue of 14 per cent or $189,000 in company real estate holdings

During the first half of the year, the board decided to suspend the payment of dividends to shareholders given the significant capital investments being made to maintain the competitiveness of the company’s real estate portfolio, as well as the financial constraints arising from inflation and the strained local economy.

The statement said: “The cost of living in Bermuda has risen significantly and your company has increasingly faced challenges in retaining and attracting employees.

“To ensure the high-quality products and service that have been provided to the Bermuda community for nearly 200 years is maintained, a salary review of key departments was conducted to adjust compensation in line with the local market.

“Your company’s management has worked relentlessly to find operating efficiencies and to reduce operating costs in its effort to minimise the impact of global and local inflation.

“Your company’s management and board continue to strategically review operations of all divisions and ensure that changes are implemented in loss-making businesses within the group.“

• To read the full statement, see Related Media

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Bda Press -2024-03-31 BSX Interim Report.pdf