The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Super Value’s owner yesterday said his two supermarket brands will collectively employ more than 1,000 persons when the final store opens in February, adding that he would be “thrilled” if the latest location attracted 20,000 customers per week.

Disclosing that the second Quality Supermarkets store, at South Beach, was set to open today, Rupert Roberts conceded that achieving this target might not be possible without ‘cannibalising’ the customer base at his existing stores.

But, while telling Tribune Business that Super Value’s Golden Gates store attracted an average 17,000-19,000 customers per week, Mr Roberts said South Beach was effectively ‘virgin territory’ and the Quality Supermarkets store should be able to attract “100 per cent” of consumers there.

“We will open at South Beach tomorrow [today] with about 75 employees,” Mr Roberts said. He added that, between Super Value and the inaugural Quality Supermarket location at Cable Beach, his two chains employed 823 persons,

With the addition of the South Beach staff, and a similar number at the soon-to-be-opened former City Markets store at the Seagrapes Shopping Centre, Mr Roberts said those openings would “take us up over the 1,000” mark in terms of employees.

Underscoring the importance of employers doing whatever they can to facilitate job creation, Mr Roberts said: “Unemployment, at 20 per cent, is wreaking havoc on the economy.

“That affects our sales. The more we do, the more stores that are open, the more people who are employed, that means more bills are paid to BEC and school fees. The ripple effect really impacts the economy.”

While South Beach’s opening had been put “a little behind schedule” due to the store’s air conditioning (A/C) system being hit three times by copper thieves, Mr Roberts said two more A/C units were flown in and installed at the store last night.

“We’ve stocked the store, and have been operating with the staff in there day and night for the past three weeks with the A/C we have,” the Super Value president said.

He added that his refrigeration installation crew had already finished at South Beach, and were now moving on to the third and final Quality Supermarkets site at the Seagrapes Shopping Centre, Prince Charles Drive.

Looking forward to Quality Supermarkets’ business prospects at South Beach, Mr Roberts told Tribune Business: “Foot traffic should be good.

“I would be thrilled to get 20,000 customers a week, but it might be difficult without drawing a little bit from the other stores.

“In the Golden Gates area we jump around from 18,000-19,000 a week. But we are not represented in that trade area [South Beach], have never been in that trade area. We have to draw 100 per cent; I don’t see why anyone would pass us to anywhere else.”

Mr Roberts told Tribune Business that 50 per cent of store managers and assistant managers across his two chains were women.

He added that the manager of Super Value’s Golden Gates location was being transferred to South Beach to run the Quality Supermarkets store, with a former City Markets manager, Michelle Ferguson, acting as her assistant.

Another former City Markets manager, Linda Pinder, had gone to the Quality Supermarkets store at Cable Beach, Mr Roberts explaining that he was looking to marry Super Value’s systems with the customer recognition his former rival’s executives would bring.

He added the Cable Beach store was expected to perform “better and better” as the Bahamian tourism season kicked in to high gear, given that visitors accounted for a large percentage of that location’s business.

Expressing hope that the US economy would continue to recover and avoid the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’, Mr Roberts said of conditions at home: 
“We’re in a bad economy. The economy is in shambles. Everyone has realised it. Mid-September, mid-October I was afraid, but things have picked back up. The economy is not what we want it to be.”