The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Supervalue’s owner yesterday revealed he “had the horrors” just before Christmas”, but quickly recovered after both his supermarket brands delivered a 7 per cent sales increase in the final week before the big day.

Rupert Roberts told Tribune Business that the combined $500,000 year-over-year top-line increase delivered by Supervalue and Quality Supermarkets more than offset the 12 per cent decline experienced in penultimate week before Christmas.

“I went to say excellent, but it was very good,” Mr Roberts told this newspaper of the supermarket chains’ Christmas performance.

“I had the horrors two weeks before Christmas. We were down some 12 per cent, and then I had fears. Last year we were pumping sales with people stocking up to beat the Value-Added Tax (VAT).

“Then Christmas came through alright, and we were up some 7 per cent over last year. We’d been averaging just below that, even with VAT.”

Mr Roberts said the Government’s new 7.5 per cent levy, implemented on January 1, 2015, did not result in a proportionate reduction in consumer spending and sales.

Pointing out that people with disposable incomes had continued to spend, and that VAT had largely impacted persons with tighter budgets, Mr Roberts said: “We figure it only took about 5 per cent.

“Our sales [for the full year] are off about 5 per cent because of VAT. We will be up 5 per cent, but of we had zero tax increases, I would say we would have had another 5 per cent on top of that because of what VAT took from us.”

Mr Roberts told Tribune Business that both the Super value and Quality supermarket chains played their part in the sales increase leading up to Christmas.

Supervalue’s top-line rose about 8 per cent, while the three-store Quality Supermarkets chain grew its sales by 5.1 per cent year-over-year.

“It looks like both were going about neck and neck,” Mr Roberts said. “We were working hard, and things were going good.

“The 12 per cent [decline from the previous week] was a much smaller number because it was off smaller base. While the 12 per cent was larger, we were only down by $60,000, while being up 7 per cent was close to $500,000. We’re not complaining.

“We had a good Christmas. Unless we could have controlled the time that people shopped, we could have only handled about 10 per cent more in total.

“Sometimes we were overrun, and sometimes we had a hard job stopping them from taking over the store.”

Looking ahead to 2016, Mr Roberts said the Bahamian economy’s prospects depended heavily on when the stalled $3.5 billion Baha Mar project was completed and finally opened.

“If we can get Baha Mar open, I would use the word ‘good’,” the Supervalue owner told Tribune Business.

“If we don’t, it depends on how tourism goes. If tourism keeps up, and new projects come along, the Bahamas always survives.

“We keep surviving somehow. We all have to make it, whatever hand we’re dealt. We have to make the best of it. Yes, we look forward to better things, and whatever happens we’ll have to make the best of it. We can’t despair.”