The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business

Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

RIVAL BAHAMIAN wholesalers can survive competition from US distribution giant Sysco, one local wholesaler/retailer telling Tribune Business: “There’s room for everybody.”

Phil’s Food Services chief, Philip Lightbourne, who has already thrown his support behind Sysco’s potential acquisition of Bahamas Food Services, told Tribune Business yesterday that Bahamian retailers and wholesalwers would continue to “strive and survive” despite the US giant’s presence.

“If you look at Asa H Pritchard, which has been around a long time, they are the distributors for products like Mahatma rice, Mueller’s, Blue Bird and Robin Hood flour,” Mr Lightboure said.

“No Sysco, no entity in the US is going to block that. That’s their forte. That’s what the Bahamian people want. If you look at Milo B Butler and Sons, they have products like Twinings tea and Juice Bowl, that’s their line.

“Bahamas Wholesale Agencies has cigars and tobacco, pet products, cookies, Par Excellence rice. D’Albenas has Campbell’s products, Riceland, Kellogs and those are some of their brands. They can handle themselves,” said Mr Lightbourne.

“When you talk about the local wholesaler who supplies the local retailers and the Mom and Pop stores, they will continue to strive and survive. When you face the local residential consumer, they are not going to  abandon the established taste and presence of Libby’s, Robin Hood, Mahatma Rice, Juice Bowl, Kellogs and Kraft, they are not going to abandon it.”

Mr Lightbourne added: “The commercial, industrial and governmental sector of the market would also continue to be supplied by the local wholesaler. BFS has been supplying the hotel industry with high-end products for their restaurants.

“Of all the wholesalers who think they will get eaten by Sysco, none of them sell frog legs, a lamb leg chop special portion, maine lobster, organic meat, duck leg, octopus, the pita bread, the specialty cheeses, real crab meat, the albacore, the smoked gouda.

“None supply this type of food product, which means all these hotels would have to fly in or find some entity in the States to get those products from, when Sysco will just basically be dealing with that and help the small Mom and Pop stores survive in the industry.

“There is not a produce company in the Bahamas equipped to handle the produce demand other than BFS, and they even have a little problem handling that demand as it is now. Imagine when Baha Mar comes on stream. We need an entity that can handle these big resorts. There’s room for everybody. I am 100 per cent sure as a wholesale retail store that Sysco will only benefit me, the Mom and Pops, the Continentals and all in he future.”

Patrick Treco, managing director of Continental Foods, recently told Tribune Business that if a deal between Sysco and BFS were to happen, Bahamian-owned food wholesalers would inevitably be “undercut” on price, adding that he could not see the deal getting government approval without Bahamian participation.

Prime minister Perry Christie confirmed earlier this week that the multi-billion dollar US food distribution giant was looking to acquire Bahamas Food Services (BFS), as revealed by this newspaper last week.

The Prime Minister said that the Government was not close  to making a final decision on the potential acquisition, telling Tribune Business his administration was having detailed discussions with rival Bahamian wholesalers on the deal’s likely impact.

Sysco had initially expressed interest in BFS back in 2004-2005. The initial deal, which was mulled under the first Christie administration, never came to fruition, partly because the Government was reluctant to grant approval for it in an industry supposedly reserved for 100 per cent Bahamian ownership only.

  Sysco boasts of sales and service relationships with approximately 400,000 customers, operating from more than 180 locations throughout the US, Canada and Ireland.

BFS, formerly known as Island Seafood (ISF), has been operating in the Bahamas since 1971. The company, which employs some 300 Bahamians and offers more than 9,000 product lines, is owned by the Frisch family out of Jacksonville, Florida. The same family controls the parent, Beaver Street Fisheries.

BFS operates from a 160,000 square foot facility, located on 20 acres off Gladstone Road. It has room for expansion, and also has its Tropic Seafood fisheries export arm. It is also the leading food supplier to the Bahamian hotel, restaurant and retail industry.