The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL 

TribuneBusinessEditor 

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

AML Foods yesterday said it has “expanded our ambitions” to now target becoming a “$300m company by 2030” as its top executive asserted: “We are bullish on our industry.”

Gavin Watchorn, the BISX-listed food retail and franchise group’s president, told Tribune Business it has “a road map of opportunities” before it following the reopening of its Solomon’s Old Trail store that will now serve as “the model” for further expansion of its neighbourhood grocery outlet model.

Revealing that AML Foods has raised its total sales target by 20 percent, or $50m, compared to the $250m goal it unveiled just three years ago, he also disclosed that the group is in the final stages of a $2m

project to solarise all its New Providence properties and take them “70-80 percent off the grid during the day” to drive significant energy cost savings.

Mr Watchorn told this newspaper the growth strategy is focused on staff - and not just expanding the store network - through the goal of ensuring 85 percent of all promotions go to existing employees. And he added that the “big focus” placed by the group on reducing shrinkage, meaning the loss of product to theft, damage or going bad/past its sell-by date, was now paying off in its financial results.

Having completed the conversion of Solomon’s SuperCentre into its neighbourhood food store format, AML Foods is now focusing on the relocation of its Cost Right brand from the Town Centre Mall to the same Old Trail Road site by November this year as the next step in its growth plans.

“In our annual report we are writing, we think we will be above $300m by 2030,” Mr Watchorn told Tribune Business of total sales. “We’ve expanded our ambitions. We believe there are growth opportunities for us.

“We want to make sure we have an opportunity it aligns with the community, it aligns with the environment and it aligns with shareholder expectations. We believe there’s an opportunity for us, and our target now is that we want to be a $300m company by 2030.”

That would represent a $109m, or 57 percent, increase to the $191m topline generated for the 12 months to end-April 2024 in just six years. AML Foods has acquired sites in southern New Providence off Charles Saunders Highway, as well as at Faith Avenue in the Carmichael Road area, for future store expansion but Mr Watchorn said its first priority is Cost Right’s relocation.

“That will be November at the latest,” he confirmed. “We are a little ahead of schedule. We expect Cost Right to come up here during the month of November. The team are running a little ahead of schedule.” Cost Right will occupy 55,000 square feet that was formerly used for Solomon’s SuperCentre, and will be immediately next door to the remodelled 25,000 square foot Solomon’s Old Trail outlet.

AML Foods is investing $22m in acquiring the 80,000 square feet that both its retail formats will occupy, along with the remodel and renovations. Franklyn Butler, the BISX-listed group’s chairman, yesterday voiced opposite that the location next to Cable Bahamas’ headquarters will become a shopping “destination”.

Mr Watchorn, meanwhile, said Cost Right’s new home space compares favourably to the 30,000 square feet it currently occupies at Town Centre Mall. He added that the investment represented “a little bit of consolidation” for the Solomon’s brand, which will no longer employ the ‘big box’ SuperCentre format but instead focus on its two ‘Fresh Market’ outlets and the neighbourhood food store concept.

“When we looked at it, Solomon’s SuperCentre and Cost Right, particularly in Nassau, having them so close to each other, a mile-and-a-half apart and selling the same product, we felt it was not the best use of space,” he explained of the remodel. “The team has done an excellent job of staying best in class with what we’re trying to do and use space more efficiently.

“It’s about creating efficiencies for our team, it’s about creating the right experience for our customers, and we’ve been able to do that with a lesser footprint which means a smaller capital investment upfront.” The renovated Old Trail maximises floor use while also being spacious, with the check-out aisles in particular much wider than those found in a traditional grocery store.

While smaller than the 38,000 square foot Solomon’s Yamacraw, Mr Watchorn pointed to similarities between the upgraded location and the group’s downtown Freeport location. “This is the model for future expansion that we intend to replicate in several more areas,” he told this newspaper.

But, while AML Foods has “begun planning” for other land it owns, its president and chief executive reiterated: “Our next project is to get Cost Right up and running and then move on to the next opportunity we have. It is our goal to continue to grow. We have a road map of opportunities that we feel are right for the community, right for us, right for our associates and right for our shareholders.

“We’re quite structured in what we’re doing in terms of growth. The team have done a tremendous amount of work looking at processes, systems and procedures to make sure the system can be executed by the majority [of staff]. We are aligning ourselves with partners who are growth minded.

“We have good opportunities for our team and they want to be part of it. We have more and more people putting up their hands for promotion. We’ve set ourselves a target, I think it’s 85 percent, of all promotions to be internal. You cannot just grow buildings; you have to grow people.”

Describing this as being “among the key pillars of growth”, Mr Watchorn added: “We have a mission, and we are being very structured and deliberate about what we’re doing - whether that’s long-term development of people, long-term management of debt, or aligning with partners.

“We have a mission we believe in, and have a mission that we believe is good for our consumers. We feel Bahamian consumers should have a good shopping experience, and we’re very intent and deliberate about what we’re doing.

“AML is bullish on what we are seeing from our industry. We are making more and more of our decisions data-driven. We are very deliberate about what we are doing as we have a plan, and are very deliberate about executing the plan.”

Richard Jones, AML Foods vice-president of facilities, said the group had invested $757000 in installing solar panels at the Old Trail Road site alone And Mr Watchorn confirmed a new roof has also been laid, and told Tribune Business: “We have solar panels on the roof to take us 80 percent off the grid in the day time. We have to make sure we minimise our footprint and energy costs.

“Shortly we will have every roof in New Providence solarised. We’ve been doing this in several stages. It is a $2m investment to complete solar for all of our buildings in New Providence. It’s just about complete. We have one more place where it has already begun. It’s happening at the same time Eventually we’ll be 70-80 percent off the grid during the day. Any new location will be solarised from the beginning.”

Mr Watchorn said the group’s overall sales were “a little bit soft” due to the Solomon’s Old Trail renovations, which had been underway since January “We expect with the re-opening of the store to see a lift in sales,” he added “We’ve had a period of deflated sales with this store.

“We are seeing a lot of improvement in our shrink experience. We put a lot of work into that. This time last year shrinkage was becoming a big challenge for us, as it had become a challenge for a lot of people in our industry. We have reacted to that, made changes and are seeing much better shrinkage than we were 12 months ago.

“We reacted to that, put a big focus on that and that’s making a big difference to our results. It really impacted our numbers for a couple of quarters. We are seeing a reduction in shrinkage and that’s hoping to drive improved results as well.”