The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

AML Foods yesterday said its new Solomon’s Fresh Market store at Harbour Bay exceeded the first day sales achieved by its western New Providence counterpart, its chief executive anticipating that a further five-10 staff will need to be hired.

Gavin Watchorn, who is also the BISX-listed group’s president, told Tribune Business that with the opening of its second Solomon’s Fresh Market, plus the Solomon’s Lucaya outlet earlier this year, AML Foods was on track to do $125-$130 million in total sales for its current financial year.

Noting that Harbour Bay’s Solomon’s Fresh Market opened “a couple of days earlier than expected” on Monday, Mr Watchorn said: “It went very well.

“We’re very pleased with the opening. We had a good day. The first day’s sales were higher than the Old Fort Bay [Solomon’s Fresh Market] when that opened.

“The team did a great job in opening. We had no major issues, and lots and lots of happy customers.”

Mr Watchorn added that the Harbour Bay opening was “unannounced” by the company, but news spread quickly via ‘word of mouth’ and social media.

AML Foods has taken over the former City Markets store location at the eastern New Providence shopping complex, becoming the property’s so-called ‘anchor tenant’.

It is the company’s second Solomon’s Fresh Market outlet, and Mr Watchorn told Tribune Business that AML Foods had invested between $1.2-$1.3 million in stocking it with inventory, on top of a $5 million spend in re-equipping and fitting out the property.

Asked about the Harbour Bay store’s likely annual sales contribution, Mr Watchorn said: “We think it’ll do north of $20 million; that’s on the low side.

“We’ve been getting a good feel leading up to it, with lots of inquiries and communications on social media. We had a quiet air of confidence.”

The AML Foods chief executive added that Solomon’s Fresh Market at Harbour Bay opened with 90 staff, the same level as the first store in the Old Fort Bay New Town Centre.

“We’ll probably add to that,” Mr Watchorn disclosed. “We see a couple of areas we need to address, where we will do more business that we take out west.

“We think certain departments will be busier than the western store, so we will have to plug that a little bit until we get the optimum staffing level. We have 90; we may end up with 95-100.”

The second Solomon’s Fresh Market location is part of AML Foods’ growth strategy, which aims to exploit the ‘opportunity’ created by City Markets’ demise and the ‘gap’ in the market.

Other key components of this plan are the Solomon’s Lucaya outlet and the new Carl’s Jr franchise, as the food retail and franchise group seeks to increase sales - and generate increased synergies and economies of scale - by spreading them across a relatively unchanged cost base.

In theory, AML Foods should see a greater proportion of sales drop to the bottom line, driving increased shareholder returns and value.

Analysing the likely top-line impact of the new store openings on the financial year that is set to close at end-January 2013, Mr Watchorn told Tribune Business: “I would say we will end the year maybe between $125-$130 million.

“The sales growth is a first part, and now we’ve got all these stores open we will put the focus back on day-to-day operations and bring the sales growth to the bottom line. We’re pleased with the top-line growth, but that’s only part of the job.”

The AML Foods chief said the Solomon’s Lucaya outlet, which opened in July, was “continuing to grow” and set to receive a further boost from the return of Grand Bahama winter residents during the months of October and November.

“We’re pleased with the sales numbers we’ve had at that store, and are equally pleased that we’re growing sales at our other Freeport locations as well,” Mr Watchorn said. “We don’t feel we’re taking sales from ourselves.”

He added that the BISX-listed group’s expansion would also better help it withstand any future economic recessions, as sales were being spread over a larger population base.

“The opportunity came up, and in good times and bad times, we felt for the long-term benefit of the company we had to seize these opportunities,” Mr Watchorn said.

“We’re putting ourselves in a position..... as we expand the geographical spread and stores, we spread sales over a greater geographical and demographic base that will help insulate us from future recession.”

Mr Watchorn said sales and profits were increasing group-wide, and added: “We feel we’ve got some momentum building for the Christmas period.”