The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Super Value’s owner says his stores did four times’ more business this New Year’s Eve than in 2013, as consumers “went out with a vengeance to beat Value-Added Tax (VAT)”.

Rupert Roberts confirmed that predictions of a last-minute rush to beat the 7.5 per cent levy were accurate, suggesting to Tribune Business that merchants enjoyed a 20 per cent boost in the build-up to VAT’s New Year’s Day implementation.

Adding that the Bahamian economy as a whole was likely to have enjoyed a 10 per cent surge in the last three months of 2014, Mr Roberts nevertheless acknowledged that retailers such as Super Value had been left with something of a New Year’s hangover.

He revealed that the last-minute 2014 stock-up had resulted in the supermarket chain’s New Year’s Day sales being down 50 per cent year-over-year, meaning that the impact from the late year sales boost is likely to flatten out over time.

“When it came to the wire, they spent four times’ as much with us,” Mr Roberts, who owns three Quality Supermarkets sites as well as Super Value, told Tribune Business.

“This New Year’s Eve, we did four times’ as much as last year. They [consumers] did go out with a vengeance to beat VAT.”

Mr Roberts said John Rolle, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, had predicted that retailers could see a late 2014 boost during a meeting between government officials and the industry in October.

“He predicted it, and it did happen. It’s surprising how well consumers received it,” Mr Roberts told Tribune Business of VAT. “The economy revved up 10 per cent in the last three months, and merchants had a 20 per cent increase in consumer spending.

“I would estimate that the whole country had a 10 per cent boost because of VAT; VAT shopping and stocking up. I personally intended to go out and do some shopping, and got only about one-third of it done.

“Everybody wanted to do something, and that built the economy 10 per cent in the weeks, the three months building up to VAT.”

Mr Roberts added that he also imported equipment to remodel Super Value’s stores, but only half of it arrived in the country pre-VAT.

Now for the hangover. Mr Roberts confirmed that business volumes at his supermarket chain were down 50 per cent year-over-year on New Year’s Day.

With some stores off by more than 60 per cent, he conceded that it was “hardly worth opening” last Thursday, although it was necessary to give consumers access to breadbasket items.

“The business was done pre-VAT,” the Super Value chief acknowledged. “Compared to the same figures from last year, it’s going to be a big figure down.”

Mr Roberts also acknowledged that extra tax revenues were necessary to pay for essential services such as education, healthcare and garbage collection.

“We have to pay taxes to run the country, and I think consumers have realised that,” he told Tribune Business. “We’re at stage two, and are looking forward to that.

“We have to pay for this [VAT] with more productivity, becoming more productive, and with more ingenuity, taking better care of ourselves and better care of the economy.”