The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

and NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Reporters

A Bahamian bread supplier yesterday revealed that the government's total weekend lockdown had disrupted production to the extent that fulfilling orders by major retailers was impacted.

Kimani Smith, Purity Bakery's general manager, told Tribune Business: "When the prime minister shut down the country abruptly, and he did what he had to do, that basically disrupted our production schedule.

"For example, we produce bread on Sunday for Monday distribution, so we weren't able to get in the bakery on Sunday. We are making bread as of today [Monday] and we are going to be putting that out.

"We are trying to adjust our schedules accordingly, but what is happening in the stores as you can imagine is everyone is a little panicked and afraid, so everyone is having a massive run on the inventory of bread. For example, if you are accustomed to purchasing two loaves you are now purchasing eight."

An e-mail sent yesterday by Purity Bakery to one of its customers, which has been seen by Tribune Business, warned that the late manufacturing start could postpone store deliveries until this morning.

It said: "As you are aware we were all shut down this weekend. We normally produce bread on Sunday for Monday distribution, we were unable to do this and we are now in the process of producing. We normally start producing from 12am but had to start at 6am this morning.

"Subsequently, bread may not be available to service your stores until Tuesday morning. Depending on the time the production run finishes we will do our best to supply before your stores close this evening. But certainly will service Tuesday morning."

Mr Smith, meanwhile, said bread demand was "impossible" to keep up with. He added: "Because it is not like baking bread at home, we have a whole process and a whole manufacturing plant. So it is usually a process before I get a loaf of bread to the store.

"I have at least four to six hours of production time. I'm talking about mixing the bread and letting that bread that proof, and then going through the oven; letting the bread cool; bagging the bread and then now having to distribute the bread."

Mr Smith continued: "We're putting bread out right now, and I am trying to work through the disruption as best as possible. But I would imagine that every manufacturer would be in a similar boat and they are trying to adjust their production schedules based on the constraints they have."

"There is plenty of product available. We just had to adjust our production schedule based on the protocols that have been established. Mr Smith reassured Bahamian consumers Purity Bakery was delivering bread to the market as of yesterday and will continue to do so.

But he added: "As of next week we won't be able to get into the bakery until Tuesday based on the restrictions from the Prime Minister. We have an exemption to operate right now as an essential service, but even the food stores won't be open based on this new lock down, so we are just falling in line with the new protocols that have been established.

"On Tuesday of next week we will have bread available by probably midday as opposed to Tuesday morning, because after we put the bread out at the end of Wednesday we won't be able to get back in and firing up those ovens until Tuesday morning as opposed to Monday night. So remember we need a day to bake and a day to distribute."

The Prime Minister announced in Parliament yesterday that The Bahamas will go through a five-day lockdown over the Easter weekend starting on Wednesday night at 9pm and ending on Tuesday morning at 5am. The lockdowns will be repeated for every weekend in April, lasting from Friday night at 9pm to Monday morning at 5am.

The end of the weekend shutdown, followed swiftly by the announcement of a new one, produced long lines at food stores, gas stations and water depots as Bahamians and residents raced to stock up ahead of Easter.

Philip Beneby, president of the Retail Grocers Association, told Tribune Business yesterday that the Government's lockdowns will "put a strain on the supply chain without a doubt" as retailers will have to ensure all orders placed with wholesalers/importers this week are received before Wednesday evening.

He added that the industry simply had to "find some way of working through it" and adjust strategies, especially given that yesterday's curfew - which did not expire until 5am - meant wholesaler staff were unable to come in early and start picking orders for delivery to retailers as they normally would.

"We are pulling from the in-house inventory right now seeing that Wednesday is going to be the last day for deliveries," Mr Beneby said. "We have to see whatever we can get on from the wholesalers between now and Wednesday because for five days that's it. If orders are placed and you don't get them by Wednesday it means you will not get them until the following week Tuesday.

"It is going to put a strain on the supply chain without a doubt. Even speaking with one of the other major warehouses after checking on one of our deliveries, they're saying workers can't come to work and start pulling the order before 5am. That slowed things up.

"That takes a while before all the trucks are loaded and they hit the street. It does have a negative effect sometimes to the extent the supply chain needs to keep moving. For most large wholesale distributors they have early workers that come in and pull the orders so they can get out to the food stores early. They weren't able to do that early this [yesterday] morning because of the 5am curfew."