The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian brewery's principal has slammed the the Government for allowing its main competitor to operate while his firm remains closed, adding: "It doesn't pay to be a Bahamian in your own country."

Jimmy Sands, the Bahamian Brewery and Beverage Company's founder, accused the Government of applying "double standards" by enabling BISX-listed Commonwealth Brewery's wholesale arm to seemingly fully function during the latest COVID-19 lockdown while his operation and those of hundreds of independent liquor retailers are all shut down.

He told Tribune Business that Commonwealth Brewery's retail arm, 700 Wines & Spirits, appeared to be running an online operation where consumers could place and pay for their drinks' orders electronically, and then either have them delivered to their home or pick them up from a store.

Mr Sands added that he had "witnessed" this in action himself when he visited the company's Queen's Highway location in Freeport, and saw cases of beer and alcohol being taken out and placed into a long line of customer vehicles. He even sent a photograph to this newspaper, reproduced here, purporting to show these activities taking place.

And a 700 Wines & Spirits advertisement, shown on Eyewitness News on Friday night, further backed Mr Sands' contention as it openly promoted the company's online/pick-up/delivery operation.

However, a Commonwealth Brewery spokesperson, in e-mailed replies to this newspaper's inquiries, said the company was in full compliance with the exemptions granted by the Government. They denied any breaches of the law or the COVID-19 emergency powers orders.

"At present, Commonwealth Brewery has permission from the Competent Authority, like other local manufacturers, to operate its brewery and warehouse for wholesale distribution. The latest permissions are outlined in Emergency Powers (COVID-19 Pandemic) (Storm Preparedness) Order 2020, section 9-1(g)," they said.

"Commonwealth Brewery's 700 Wines & Spirits stores are closed to retail customers with the exception of the southern islands, where the Competent Authority has permitted commercial activity. Further, Commonwealth Brewery operates with the bounds of the law and, where exemptions are requested, we seek approval from the Competent Authority."

An August 7, 2020, letter signed by the Prime Minister, and addressed to Jurgen Mulder, Commonwealth Brewery's managing director, confirms that the company - which is 75 percent majority-owned by global brewing giant, Heineken, was exempted from the early August COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and permitted "to operate on a 24-hour basis" in three areas.

These were "emergency maintenance for the brewery operations"; security personnel at the brewery and warehouse; and "the wholesale distribution of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages".

However, Mr Sands' observations and photo, together with the 700 Wines & Spirits advertisement, raise questions over the company's assertion that no stores are open on islands subject to COVID-19 restrictions and whether it has crossed the boundaries between wholesale/retail since the online operation appears targeted at consumers.

The Bahamian Brewery and Beverage principal told Tribune Business it was "grossly unfair" that Commonwealth Brewery had been given permission to operate its wholesale business while he and hundreds of other liquor merchants have been closed since early August due to the latest COVID-19 restrictions.

Mr Sands said inquiries with the Royal Bahamas Police Force had revealed officers felt they were powerless to intervene because of the permissions granted to Commonwealth Brewery by Dr Hubert Minnis and his office.

He argued that it was the latest example of seemingly preferential treatment granted to one company while its competitors in the same industry remained closed or were required to operate under much tighter pandemic restrictions, with his own company having been granted approval to run an online sales operation during the first lockdown only to have this taken away within 24 hours.

"I find it grossly unfair for one company to be permitted to sell wholesale alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages to the public, and myself and hundreds of independent Bahamian retailers are not permitted to do so," Mr Sands blasted. "I find it grossly, grossly discriminatory.

"I find it very distasteful. We've all got a livelihood to make, and we cannot exactly make a livelihood if the competition are open and we are closed. I find it grossly unfair, discriminatory or whatever you want to call it. It's blatantly not fair to other people."

While voicing gratitude that the Government had allowed the Bahamian Brewery and Beverage Company to continue Hurricane Dorian-related repairs to its production facilities amid the latest lockdown, Mr Sands said "the understanding was we couldn't sell any alcohol".

He added: "A week or so ago I get wind of 700 Wines & Spirits selling alcohol. I heard all the sip sip and said: "Let me go and investigate this thing for myself, and I witnessed it myself'. I personally saw it in action.

"I didn't see any payments or money changing hands, but I saw the cases of beer and alcohol going out of the place and into people's cars. It was 700 Wines & Spirits on Queen's Highway. I can only speak for Freeport; I don't know what they're doing in other places. But we were not allowed to sell alcohol: Period."

Mr Sands told Tribune Business that the situation was especially disheartening given that he was still working to restore the Bahamian Brewery and Beverage Company's manufacturing/brewing capability, and ability to produce its Sands family of beers, following the knock-out blow delivered by Dorian almost exactly 12 months ago.

Yet, while he had managed to keep all 130 employees on payroll over the past year, all nine of his Jimmy's Wines and Spirits retail sites are closed as a result of the latest COVID-19 order, while stocks on imported Budweiser, Presidente beer and wines and spirits continue to build up in the absence of wide-scale distribution.

"Here I am, a Bahamian, again and again belittled as a second class citizen in my own country," Mr Sands told this newspaper. "I'm closed, they're open. Not a bottle has left the place. It's very frustrating. It's almost like: Why am I doing it?

"I know we all make mistakes, but this is a gross oversight on the Government's part. It's not fair on myself and hundreds of other independent retailers. It doesn't pay to be a Bahamian in my own country. I'd be better off if I got out of the country, revoked my citizenship and came in with some other nationality.

"Don't get me wrong. I'm in the same boat with other people. I'm one of many catching hell, but when you see something like this going on it's very disheartening."