The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net AN Abaco businessman yesterday revealed he plans to invest between $1-$1.2 million in expanding his auto parts business to Freeport, telling Tribune Business it would become the distribution hub for the Bahamas and "revolutionise" the sourcing of auto parts. Stephen Albury, proprietor of CarQuest in Dundas Town, Abaco, told Tribune Business that the Freeport distribution hub would be open before the end of the 2012 fourth quarter, following swiftly behind the opening of his existing Abaco operation. He said: "We did a huge campaign to figure out what we need here, and when we go to Freeport we will do the same thing, so we will have a good idea of what we need in parts. We have already identified the property, and we are in talks with the Port Authority. I'm taking a group from CarQuest down there in March." CarQuest Auto Parts is an international retail chain with more than 3,000 locations in North America and the Caribbean region. The new Abaco outlet is said to be the first in the Bahamas to offer a complete inventory of parts and services, including sourcing of non-stocking parts from a full network of suppliers. Mr Albury added of his Freeport plans: "That will become the distribution centre for the Bahamas because of the bonded issue. Car parts are high duty, 60 per cent. The Government changed the duty on cars last year, and the average car that's being shipped to our country is 10-and-a-half years old. What that means is that new cars need very little parts other than service parts. Once you pass that six to seven year barrier, you start to need more parts." Mr Albury said expanding to Freeport would allow for the company to keep more inventory with no additional capital. "It allows the luxury of stocking more inventory with no additional capital," he explained. "So you can actually stock more inventory and spend no more than if you had to do the same thing some place else. That will be the distribution hub, so then we can really enter the Nassau market and do well. If you are able to keep more inventory without having to have duty paid, but having it that close, we can then ship it anywhere in the Bahamas. If we only have it here in Abaco or in Nassau you can't bond it, so the cost of doing business is much higher. Setting it up there presents major advantages." Mr Albury said the company's pricing would probably set a new benchmark in the Bahamian market. Regarding his recently-opened Abaco store, Mr Albury said business was up about 25 per cent in February compared to January, a trend he expected to continue until year's end. "We kind of did a soft opening right after Thanksgiving," he said. "Our first month in business was really December, and this is kind of month three. We just did our end of month numbers for February versus January, and there was about a 25 per cent increase over January. We expect that single and double digit growth until we get to about the end of the year, and then I think we will plateau a bit." Mr Albury said that just under $750,000 was invested in the Abaco outlet, with four additional employees being added to its 12-member staff.