The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

SUPER Value's president yesterday said the refitting of City Markets' former Cable Beach store was "green lighted and a go", with the location's re-opening - targeted for this month - set to create around 60 jobs.

Rupert Roberts told Tribune Business, though, that his Super Value supermarket chain had not acquired the Cable Beach site leasehold or those for the other three still-closed City Markets sites on New Providence. The deal had instead been done through another of his entities, Quality Supermarkets Ltd, the intention being to maintain separate brand and corporate identities.

Indicating that the deal to acquire interests in the last four City Markets locations from the Finlayson family-owned vehicle, Trans-Island Traders, may be getting close to completion, Mr Roberts said Quality Supermarkets had only acquired the beleaguered supermarket chain's assets, not its liabilities.

"We've been working at it now, restocking out the store. We'll just go and go until we finish and open," Mr Roberts told Tribune Business of the former City Markets' Cable Beach location. "It's a green light now. It's a go."

This newspaper had contacted the Super Value president after its contacts informed it persons were working inside the Cable Beach location, refitting and restocking it. Numerous vehicles can now be seen in its parking lot.

These developments represent the first tangible sign that Mr Roberts and Mark Finlayson, Trans-Island Traders, are close to consummating their deal.

Indeed, the Super Value president hinted yesterday that the purchase may have effectively closed, having told Tribune Business it would take at least two months to re-open the other former City Markets' sites - Prince Charles Drive (Seagrapes), South Beach and Harbour Bay - due to their requiring upgrades "running into the millions of dollars".

On the Cable Beach store, Mr Roberts said of its restocking: "There's a method to it. You get everything you're going to carry into the store in one case. That's called set-up. Once you get that set-up in, you adjust and come in with a 'back up' order to fill up. We're getting the set-up in now."

The Super Value president added that he was unable to give an exact date for the Cable Beach location's re-opening, telling Tribune Business: "We don't know where we are. We haven't set a date. We can't do that until we have the backbone broken. We would hope to catch June, because it would be nice to catch the Government payroll."

Once re-opened, Mr Roberts said the Cable Beach store would likely employ "around 60" staff. "City Markets staff are scattered around the company in training for that store [Cable Beach] and the later store openings," he added.

"We've been taking them on all around the company, training them and indoctrinating them to our methods." The Cable Beach store's refrigeration was now being worked on, and its electricity deposit taken over by another entity controlled by Mr Roberts.

"Super Value didn't buy it," Mr Roberts told Tribune Business in reference to City Markets. "It was purchased by another company I own, Quality Supermarkets Ltd. I only purchased assets from various companies and, of course, there's a total distinction between Super Value, Quality Supermarkets and City Markets."

Bahamian wholesalers would be invoicing Quality Supermarkets for payment when it came to the former City Markets stores, Mr Roberts added, explaining that he wanted to ensure consumers did not confuse the new business with both his existing Super Value chain and the former City Markets business.

Instead, the Super Value chief said he was likely to follow the branding model established when Super Value took over Portion Control, as the latter's sign still sits on the exterior of the Robinson Road/East Street outlet.

"That denotes the location. The worst thing you can is change the name. We don't want to get away from that. We want to keep the public in line with what's happening," Mr Roberts told Tribune Business.

"But we also want to get away from the public thinking we bought City Markets, and took over all the debts, the shareholders, everything."

As a result, Mr Roberts hinted that the former Cable Beach store was likely to be rebranded 'Super Value's City Markets', in line with the Portion Control model.

"There's a lot of sorting out," he said. "We know the industry, and know how to purchase product. We have to push beyond the little hiccups."

On the agreement reached between himself and Mr Finlayson, Mr Roberts added: "Mark and myself are quite happy with the way it has worked out.

"There's odds and ends left. Mark has to help us. He inherited the City Markets warehouse, and there's odds and ends in there, shelves that belong to the stores, that he has to get out. There's going to have to be co-operation between myself and Mark for the next three-six months, and there will be."

Sources with knowledge of the deal told Tribune Business yesterday that the agreement between Mr Finlayson and Mr Roberts, signed last month and due to close in a 60-90 day period, involved a gross price of "somewhere in the region of $5 million".

However, that $5 million is unlikely to all go to Trans-Island Traders and the Finlayson family. Tribune Business understands that a significant portion of it will be "netted off" to cover liabilities left behind by the former City Markets business, such as the $3-$4 million in severance pay owed to the staff, plus things like BEC bills.

"Junior [Mr Roberts] and Mark signed an agreement that was subject to various conditions that needed to be met, by Mark primarily, and was supposed to be closed in a 60-90 day period," the source added.

Among those conditions is ensuring that Mr Roberts' Quality Supermarkets takes over the four store leases under roughly the same terms and conditions as City Markets enjoyed.