The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Residential sales kept the liquefied propane gas (LPG) industry afloat during tourism's COVID-19 shut down even though some retailers suffered a 60-70 percent Christmas decline year-on-year.

Premmie Thompson, Caribbean Gas general manager, told Tribune Business: “One of the things about it is because we are an essential business, the business never really stopped or slowed down [despite] the restaurants and the hotels that were closed. We were still here to accommodate the residential.”

She said residential demand kept her business going through the Christmas season. Many persons “panicked” about not having gas for the festive period as they were forced to stay home and had to cook for themselves.

Ms Thompson, though, added: “We were probably down about 60 percent. We didn't have any supply disruptions or anything. We had our ship come in and they gave us enough supplies to accommodate persons over the Christmas holidays. It really spiked up because everybody was cooking the turkeys and the hams.”

Andy Thompson, E Charles Moss Gas Company's general manager, said that while Christmas was “busy” it was slower than in years past. "I was down by 70 percent this year, but we had no supply disruptions," he added.

Lucille Brown, Country Gas Bahamas Company's general manager, said Christmas LPG sales were down by about 30 percent. She added that this year's business was impacted by the loss of hotel and restaurant custom due to COVID-19 related closures and restrictions.