The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Telecommunications Company's (BTC) chief executive yesterday said it will likely reduce its retail footprint on New Providence to 11 locations in a bid to "optimise" its network.

Garfield "Garry" Sinclair, in an e-mailed response to Tribune Business inquiries, confirmed the rationalisation as BTC negotiates with the franchisee that operates the Harbour Bay store.

"Harbour Bay is a franchise store and the lease is controlled by the franchisee," he said. "We're negotiating with the franchisee to ensure that the store is optimised in accordance with our new franchise contracts or, alternatively, to take over the store if the franchisee is willing."

Mr Sinclair said the negotiations remain a "work in progress", with Harbour Bay remaining a franchise store for the moment. BTC announced in April that it had closed several of its franchise locations and master distributors in order to "manage our customer support more effectively".

BTC said at the time that it had been in the process of transforming its "touch points" in order to retain market share.

Mr Sinclair told Tribune Business yesterday: "We just had too many New Providence locations, compared to our competition with only six unique locations in New Providence. Once we're done we'll be down to about 11 in all in New Providence, meaning nearly double the coverage of the competition.

"In this current phase we are empowering all of our franchised stores to provide end-to-end support for all fixed, broadband and mobile solutions. Additionally, we are increasing the use of technology and introducing kiosks to enable bill payment and top-up transactions.

"We are also assessing our current franchise and master distributor footprint to ensure that we are in the right locations, and that we are able to efficiently meet the needs of our customers. In this regard, we have reduced the number of franchise locations and master distributors."