The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter 

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A leading local bottled water manufacturer said yesterday it was enjoying ‘a very good summer’ with sales up an estimated five percent over last year.

Geoffrey Knowles, Aquapure’s operations manager told Tribune Business: “The water business has been very good this summer. It’s certainly very hot and that is undoubtedly a factor. We saw significant traffic today with people likely trying to stock up with those systems that appear to be moving in our direction.

“Our financial year just ended in July and business is up I would say about five percent over last year. We consider that to be pretty good.”

The Aquapure operations manager cited water as an example of how government taxation policies could benefit Bahamian manufacturers, with the duty increase to 100 percent under the former Christie administration enabling its one-gallon and bottled water products to enjoy a 10 percent sales increase. “That helped us tremendously,” said Mr Knowles. Still, he noted energy costs for local manufacturers remain a major concern with Aquapure spending $75,000-$80,000 a month for electricity, a cost second only to payroll.

He noted however that it would likely be another two months before the company could determine the impact of the Minnis administration’s decision to impose a 30 percent tariff on imported fruit drinks.

Mr Knowles had previously told the Tribune that Aquapure’s Tampico fruit punch would likely suffer a 20-30 percent market share loss to imported fruit drinks such as Sunny Delight.

“We won’t know the full effects of that decision for another two months or so but I have recently discovered two new brands in the market,” said Mr Knowles.

The Minnis administration had initially planned to eliminate the original 60 percent tariff on imported fruit drinks altogether but ultimately decided to slash it to 30 percent instead.