The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN manufacturers can now see light and the end of the tunnel with the reimplementation of Industries Encouragement Act incentives according to a leading bottled water manufacturer who told Tribune Business that the government now needed to tackle the high cost of electricity.

The Christie administration passed amendments in the House of Assembly last week abolishing the five-year incentives term limit and 10 per cent import duty rate.

As a result, the Industries Encouragement Act regime has been returned to its pre-2010/2011 Budget state.

The reinstatement of the incentives “will allow this large and established manufacturer to reinvest in its facilities, increase production, operate with better efficiencies, and ultimately create an operating model that is more profitable, with an ability to grow and, as a result, create additional employment opportunities for Bahamians.”

“It’s a great situation. We have been struggling now for the past three to four years. The time when we didn’t have to pay it was a short period of time when they did away with stamp tax and that made a big difference to us in being able to catch up on some equipment repairs, replacements and so forth. I think this one whenever it goes through is going too be a tremendous help to manufacturing straight through. We will be able to maintain our prices and be a bit more competitive, hire some more people and maybe get some better equipment in that doesn’t break down all the time. It’s really a saviour. Now they just need to do something with the electricity and that will be great,” said Geoffrey Knowles, operations manager at Aquapure.

“We have been struggling and if that 10 per cent is taken off, we’ll see light at the end of the tunnel,” said Knowles.

Mr Knowles also told Tribune Business that the company had received a tremendous response to its recently launched rebranding campaign. “We did a fairly good advertising campaign through July and we’re continuing through August but we probably invested between $30,000 and $40,000 with the cost of rebranding, the public relations stuff, the advertising. We are very impressed with the response so far. We are doing very well with it, it’s been very well accepted.”