The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Super Value’s president yesterday said his first Quality Supermarket had received “a little bonus” through tourists generating 80 per cent of sales, telling Tribune Business he expected the Cable Beach site to be “profitable from day one”.

Rupert Roberts said the first of the three former City Markets locations he had taken over was performing in line with expectations, adding that he expected the takeover to work out “better” than the 1984 Portion Control acquisition.

Reiterating that he would have taken over the former City Markets locations even if the economy did not improve, Mr Roberts said equipment for the other two stores - South Beach and Prince Charles Drive (Seagrapes Shopping Centre) - was set to arrive on New Providence within the next two weeks.

Although unable to give a date for their re-opening under the Quality Supermarkets banner, moves likely to create around 160 jobs combined, Mr Roberts said both sites would be open before Christmas 2012.

“We’re very pleased with Cable Beach. It’s doing just about what we expected and I think that’ll be in profit from day one,” Mr Roberts told Tribune Business.

“One of the pleasant surprises is that I thought that store would have got its business from 60 per cent Bahamian, and 40 per cent foreign from the visitors at the hotels and timeshare, but it’s 80/20.

“Eighty per cent of that business is new business, money tourists were carrying with them back home. That’s an opportunity we have to work on.

“The store is performing right up to expectations, and I think that’s the tourists that have helped do it. We expected to do it with the local market, but we got a little bonus.”

With Super Value’s store in the Westridge Shopping Plaza just down the road from the Quality Supermarkets location, Mr Roberts said he expected residents in Cable Beach and the surrounding areas would ultimately shop at whichever location was closest, and more convenient, for them.

The Cable Beach store opened at the beginning of July 2012, but the former City Markets locations at South Beach and Prince Charles Drive will take a little longer simply because more store upgrades and renovations are required.

“The things that are within our control are going well, but it will be another couple of weeks before the new equipment [for both stores] lands in Nassau,” Mr Roberts told Tribune Business.

Until the company “gets our hands on that”, he explained that no date for the opening of the other two Quality Supermarkets could be finalised.

“I don’t think our operations manager has set a date yet. There’s too many variables not within his control,” Mr Roberts explained.

“We had everything at Cable Beach in our control, so we opened that quickly. It had new equipment. We had to supplement that, but it was up to our standards and we put in new registers to connect with our system.

“We’re anxious to open in South Beach because that’s a new trade area for us. That will be new business, and why it will be the second one to open. Once we get that equipment, we will put it in as fast as we can.”

Expressing hope that the US economy would help the Bahamas revive once November’s presidential election was over, and that the $2.6 billion Baha Mar project meant the medium and long-term prospects were good, Mr Roberts compared the City Markets deal to a previous acquisition he made.

“This is going to be a deal like in 1984, when took over three-four Portion Control stores,” he told Tribune Business. “It worked out pretty well, and this is going to do better than that.

“The economy has to improve, but even if I knew it was not going to improve, I would have still made the decision to do it.

“During Christmas, hurricanes, we were getting overrun, so we needed extra floor space, even in the same areas. We had customers parking on lawns, and put in the maximum number of cash registers the stores can hold.”

In a previous interview, Mr Roberts said his three former City Markets stores could generate a collective $90 million in sales within three years if the economy grows.

He added that together with the former City Markets stores at South Beach and the Seagrapes Shopping Centre, they and Cable Beach could each produce a $30 million annual top-line “if the volumes are there”.

Disclosing that it would likely require a total $6 million investment, at a minimum, to re-open all three stores, Mr Roberts said together with his 10 Super Value supermarkets they would give him “close to” a 40 per cent share of the Bahamian food retail market.