The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A bottled water supplier described yesterday's re-opening as "pretty crazy" and said it will need "a couple of days" for production to catch-up with demand following Monday's shutdown.

Christian Knowles, Aquapure's chief of operations, told Tribune Business: “Things are hectic and pretty crazy this morning. This is what happens when we lose a whole day in production. Every moment that we are able to produce is completely beneficial to our operation.

"My business is a revolving door when it comes to supply and demand. The inventory that I make that day, certainly on the five gallons, and somewhat on the one gallons, goes out that day. So if I lose a day I lose all of that business and people still need their water."

Mr Knowles said that “unfortunately we were behind the eight-ball, because I had my schedule set up under the pretences of the last lockdown, where we were only able to go out Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but we can re-stock on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays".

He added that the three days per week given to restocking during the previous lockdown restrictions were “extremely helpful”, because Aquapure's depots and trucks were being rapidly depleted on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday mornings.

Mr Knowles said moving back into a full week's production will “take a little while”, and added: “We are running until 9pm tonight, so that is extremely helpful. We just need a couple of days to catch up because when we get calls we try to get the water out there as quickly as possible, but the only time I really get to catch up is when my depot is not open and the trucks are not on the road.

“We serviced the hospital yesterday, and we got the prison out of the way today. The police officers have come to the plant yesterday and we made sure they were straight.

“This is somewhat of a moving target. We have our regulars, but then we will get special orders. Right now, the Defence Force had placed an order of 400 cases of gallon water. We have to service the Defence Force because they are the ones that go out on the seas and, especially in hurricane season, they need to be able to respond."

Mr Knowles said it will take until Friday's close for Aquapure to “breathe easy”, provided the company can maintain production until 9pm every night so that trucks and the warehouse can be fully stocked.

Other water manufacturers yesterday confirmed similar demand to that experienced by Aquapure, with some saying they may need to hire extra staff to keep up.

Mario Williams, Crystal Clear H2O's president, told Tribune Business: “We have had a lot of customers coming in because of the shortened days due to the lockdown, but I don’t want to put numbers out there like that.

"In these trying times, if people see figures then it becomes dicey for me. I don’t want to be a target. The water guy across the street from me had a robbery last week and they shot him, and I saw everything.”

Mr Williams revealed he also had difficulty in obtaining permission to travel from his home to the business, saying: “Tuesday morning I tried to call the 311 COVID-19 emergency line. It didn’t go through so I drove right to the police station to ask them for permission to go to cut off my equipment, and the officer told me that if I don’t go back home that he would lock me up.

"This was at the Paradise Island police station. I don’t know what’s going on with them this go around, because before the water manufacturers didn’t have a problem.n This is affecting my business, but on Monday I was open until 7.30pm. We were supposed to close at 7pm but, because of the long lines, I had to accommodate them.

"A nice police officer came and told me that I cannot remain open, but he saw the people on the line and told the people to hand me their bottles and sit in their cars and allowed me to accommodate them.”

Mr Williams said he now expects to be “slammed with customers", due to a result of the lockdown-related backlog and impending storm that could reach The Bahamas by Sunday afternoon. He added: “I may have to hire more staff. I think I may have to hire three more persons at least, and maybe about six in total at he most.”

A Bahama Clear representative said: “It’s very busy. What is happening is that we have fewer days to operate, so people are coming on those day,s so it has been busy.”

They added that demand was linked to uncertainty over the Government's COVID-19 response, and fears that Dr Hubert Minnis may reimpose the full New Providence lockdown that he reversed on Tuesday. They said of the Prime Minister: “It’s like he is the puppet master and we are the puppets.”