The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian new car dealers were yesterday said to have suffered a fresh blow with Mall at Marathon renovations forcing the likely postponement of the annual Car Show, as one operator likened the market to “Dodge City”.

Fred Albury, the Bahamas Motor Dealers Association’s (BMDA) president, told Tribune Business that while its members had assessed other potential venues, such as the National Stadium and hotels, none matched the setting and “value for money” provided by the Mall.

As a result, he revealed that dealers were considering postponing the Car Show to October, a move that might force some to ultimately discount autos they had imported in anticipation of sales from an earlier event.

“On a scale of one to 10, it might knock off a few points,” Mr Albury said of the potential negative impact from a Car Show postponement.

“The thinking right now is probably around October or so,” he added of a rescheduled event. “The reconstruction in the Mall won’t be done until the end of summer or thereabouts, so we’re thinking October.”

The BMDA president explained that the Car Show had been unaffected by the Mall at Marathon’s renovations last year because they had focused on the entrance, which was away from the vehicle display and dealers themselves.

This year, though, the work is focused on the corridor between the Mall’s ‘Centre Court’ and Kelly’s Home Centre. That has forced all the kiosks in that corridor to relocate to ‘Centre Court’, the traditional home for the Car Show.

“We’re looking around for possible other venues; we’re open to that,” Mr Albury added. “We’ve looked around. The bank had done something at the new National Stadium late last year, but that exposes us to the weather.

“We haven’t ruled out any of the hotel convention centres if they’re reasonable on costs. But the Mall is good value for what they charge us, and we have good foot traffic flowing through there. I’ve been doing this for 27 years, and the Mall is good value for money.”

Mr Albury emphasised that no alternative venue shared the Mall’s characteristics of space, price competitiveness and floor traffic, making it almost impossible to hold the Car Show in its traditional end-March/early April slot.

The event plays a critical role for BMDA members, as the visibility provided through the presence of virtually all new car dealers, together with the ‘deals’ traditionally offered by banks and insurance companies, tends to spike consumer interest and lead to a sales boost.

That increase may not happen now, further hurting dealers in a market that has failed to recover from the 2008-2009 recession, and which take a further ‘nosedive’ following Value-Added Tax’s (VAT) arrival in 2015.

“It’s unfortunate and it’s a little disappointing,” Mr Albury told Tribune Business of the likely postponement, “but it’s out of our control and we just gave to work with it.

“Most of the dealers had brought in inventory for the show, but we found out the Mall was too far gone with renovations. This might be for the next couple of years.

“In the past, the consumers got sensitised to having the Show at this time, and if they were seriously thinking of trying to purchase a vehicle, they’d start inquiring when the show was because the banks would give lower interest rates and the insurance companies would give discounts.”

Mr Albury said BMDA members may have to offer ‘in-house specials’ and other creative pricing strategies to “offload inventory” normally showcased by the Car Show, should the event be moved back to October.

He conceded that any postponement would not help a new auto market that has been struggling with “flat sales” for the past two years since VAT’s implementation.

“The market has shifted from sedans to smaller vehicles, and I am not seeing much of a pick up,” Mr Albury said. “My forecast this year is that it will be the same as the last two years.

“It’s been rough out there. I don’t have the numbers year-to-date, but I think it’s on a par with last year. The used cars are still flooding into the marketplace, and it’s even got to the point where used car dealers are feeling the pinch, and cutting back or closing up.

“Individuals are bringing in four to five cars and selling them by the side of the road. We see it all over town. It’s uncontrolled; Dodge City out here, a free for all for everybody.”