The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE City Markets name was what ultimately caused the struggling supermarket chain to fail to recover, a rival food retailer believes, telling Tribune Business that the Finlayson family "should have let the name die" when they acquired the 78 per cent majority stake back in 2010.

Phil Lightbourne, owner of the Gladstone Road-based food retailer/wholesaler, Phil's Food Services, said that with the closure of Robin Hood several weeks ago, and now the imminent buy-out of City Markets by Supervalue's owner and president, Rupert Roberts, there would be more business for those left in food retail.

Mr Lightbourne said: "City Markets was a name that was dead since before the takeover. When the Finlaysons bought it out they shouldn't have kept it under the City Markets name. The name City Markets was the problem; there was too much debt behind it. They should have let the name die."

Sitting on a multi-million dollar cash pile after Heineken paid an estimated $125 million to buy out the 50 per cent stake that their Associated Bahamian Distillers and Brewers (ABDAB) vehicle held in Commonwealth Brewery/Burns House, the Finlayson family acquired the majority 78 per cent stake in City Markets from the BSL Holdings group in early November 2010 for the princely sum of $1.

The supermarket chain was already struggling, weighed down by around $28 million worth of net losses rung-up by the disastrous four-year BSL Holdings ownership, and without the Finlayson deal it is likely City Markets would have gone under back then.

The family has failed to turn the supermarket chain - one of the Bahamas' leading business brand names for decades - around despite investing $19 million in it to-date. City Markets principal, Mark Finlayson, confirmed to Tribune Business over the weekend that a deal was imminent for the acquisition of the struggling five-store supermarket chain by Mr Roberts.

Mr Lightbourne told Tribune Business that in the competitive food retail business "you have to keep stepping up your game".

He added: "If you're competing with the likes of Supervalue, you have to have experience. A man like Mr Roberts is experienced in this business. You have to keep stepping up your game. To run a food store is not an easy task. You can pump all the money into this business, but you need experience to run a business like this. You have to put time into this business. You can't sit down, smoke a cigar and not watch your front and back door. You have to be relentless in this business. You have to set a solid foundation before you can even think about taking a break in this business."