The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

and Natario McKenzie

Tribune Business

Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Food Services’ (BFS) top executive has told Tribune Business he is ‘unaware’ of any potential deal to acquire the leading food distributor, despite market talk that a purchase offer was being discussed.

Although details were hard to pin down, numerous Tribune Business sources confirmed that the Gladstone Road-based company’s US owner had been exploring possible exit routes for some time, and there have been “on again, off again” talks with various interested parties.

Bahamas Food Services is owned and controlled by Ben Frisch, head of Jacksonville-based Beaver Street Fisheries, and several contacts familiar with the situation confirmed he has been assessing his succession planning options for years.

“I know there’s a move to have some kind of succession happen, because the owner is not getting any younger and he has no family interested in taking it on,” one food industry source said.

Another contact familiar with developments said that in recent years several companies, based in the US and Caribbean, had looked at Bahamas Food Services, some having held preliminary discussions with Mr Frisch, but these talks had ultimately gone nowhere.

“Ben seemed very doubtful as to whether he wanted to sell the company, although he’s getting older and moving towards retirement, and there’s no family to pass it on to,” the source said.

However, Don Carnine, Bahamas Food Services’ general manager, told Tribune Business that he had no knowledge of any deal or acquisition developments.

“I don’t know anything about that,” he replied, after being contacted by this newspaper.

While any potential deal may be some way off, Tribune Business’s contacts have painted a picture of an owner willing to listen to potential suitors.

“It’s been going on for some time. It’s been on again, off again discussions for some time with various US parties,” this newspaper was told.

One source familiar with Bahamas Food Services also told Tribune Business: “I have heard that there has been interest in buying BFS. I understand that a major company wants to purchase it.”

And one government source close to the top of the Christie administration confirmed to Tribune Business that an offer to buy Bahamas Food Services was in the works, although they refused to divulge any further details.

“That has been on the block for many years, and nothing has changed with that,” the government source said of Bahamas Food Services.

Founded in 1971, Bahamas Food Services would certainly be a tempting acquisition target for both foreign and Bahamian interests with the capital to pull it off. Its 160,000 square foot facility, set on 20 acres, has room for expansion.

The company has established itself as the leading food wholesaler/distributor in the Bahamas, with more than 300 employees distributing over 9,000 SKUs or product lines to the hotel, retail, restaurant industries, plus marinas, hospitals and government buildings.

The closest anyone came to a deal for Bahamas Food Services was in 2004-2005, when Tribune Business revealed that Sysco, a major US food distributor that generated $37 billion in sales in 2010, was in talks over a potential acquisition or partnership.

Indeed, one contact suggested that Sysco may have returned to the negotiating table and resumed its interest in Bahamas Food Services, although that has not been confirmed.

That initial deal, which was mulled under the first Christie administration, never came to fruition, partly because the then-government was reluctant to grant approval for it.

Bahamas Food Services is something of an anomaly, in that it is a foreign-owned and controlled company operating in a sector nominally reserved for Bahamians only under the National Investment Policy.

When the Sysco deal came up, some kind of share offering to the Bahamian public was mulled as a way to ease government concerns over continued foreign ownership - either shares in Bahamas Food Services, or Bahamian Depository Receipts (BDRs) in Sysco.

It is likely that, if another foreign interest agrees to acquire Bahamas Food Services, then the price of government approval will be some kind of initial public offering (IPO) or BDR offering to the Bahamian public.