Wetter weather in the Cayman Islands and a slowdown in factory orders pulled Consolidated Water Co. Ltd.’s first-quarter revenue down 11% to US$30 million, the desalination operator reported.
The Cayman-based firm said heavier rainfall on Grand Cayman cut the volume of water sold by 10.2%, dragging retail revenue 9% lower to $8.6 million. Manufacturing revenue slid 76% to $1.4 million as new purchase orders thinned out and work on fresh contracts started later than a year ago.
Other parts of the business picked up some of the slack. Bulk revenue rose 4% to $8.7 million, helped by a newly commissioned seawater plant on Cat Island in The Bahamas, while services revenue climbed 12% to $11.3 million on a 15% jump in operations and maintenance (O&M) work.
Net income from continuing operations came in at $3.8 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, down from $4.9 million, or $0.31, a year earlier. Including discontinued operations, the bottom line was unchanged at $3.8 million.
Margins narrowed only slightly. Gross profit eased to $10.9 million, or 36% of revenue, from $12.3 million, or 37%, in the same quarter of 2025.
The company’s cash pile grew to $126.3 million by 31 March 2026, with working capital of $144.3 million and stockholders’ equity of $223.6 million.
Chief executive Rick McTaggart pointed to order timing as the main driver behind the factory slump, saying “We had received a large purchase order in late 2024 which favorably impacted our first quarter revenue last year.”
He warned that full-year manufacturing revenue would fall short of 2025’s record, partly because output earmarked for the company’s Hawaii project is stripped out of group sales until it flows through the services segment.
McTaggart said Florida’s municipal water market was generating fresh demand that should feed into 2026 and 2027 results. A three-year O&M contract picked up by subsidiary PERC last November for a southern Californian municipality is expected to bring in around $4.5 million over its term.
A second Cat Island desalination plant in The Bahamas is due to start up in the current quarter. Two previously announced construction wins — a $3.9 million drinking-water plant expansion in Colorado and a $11.7 million wastewater recycling project in California — together worth roughly $15.6 million, will deliver more than $13 million of remaining revenue mostly this year.
The bigger prize remains a 1.7 million gallon per day plant in Kalaeloa, Hawaii, for the Honolulu Board of Water Supply. McTaggart said permitting was advancing but a firm construction start date had yet to be set.
