Nassau, The Bahamas – Abaco Markets Limited announces the closure of its Cost Right Abaco on Monday (March 9th) due to its non-performance despite significant investment and restructuring.
Cost Right Abaco was closed at 6pm today as senior Management met with its employees. All employees will receive full severance packages with the majority of the 14 person staff receiving their packages immediately and some remaining on staff to assist with the transfer of both product and equipment to the Group’s other locations. The Company has also offered continued coverage on the Group’s health insurance plan for up to 6 months to enable affected employees to find alternative coverage.
“We very much regret the closure of Cost Right Abaco – after the commitment to relaunch it was made only last year with over $1m invested to revitalize this location,” says Mr. Gavin Watchorn, President, Abaco Markets Limited. “We’ve tried many options – from wholesale to the revamped Club model to the reintroduction of retail product most recently – with no success. Unfortunately, despite this significant investment and the many changes, Cost Right Abaco continues to lose money – both in terms of lagging sales and high inventory losses,” explains Mr. Watchorn.
Abaco Markets reveals that the Board had been contemplating closing the store for some time but, in an effort to avoid such action, the Group sought out potential purchasers for the business and had been in discussions with a particular group for several months. When a potential sale became a possibility, the Company decided to keep the location open in the hope of concluding a sale. However, it recently became clear that a sales agreement would not be reached and the store’s performance has continued to deteriorate. “This location has been subsidized by other Group locations for several years now but given the uncertainty in today’s economic climate, Management determined that, more than ever, this just isn’t the economy or time for taking unnecessary losses or risks,” explains Mr. Watchorn. “Closing Cost Right Abaco has been a very difficult decision – especially at a time like this,” says Mr. Watchorn. “However, we have worked hard to rebuild our Company and all of our locations, with the exception of Cost Right Abaco, are now stable and consistently profitable. It is important that we stop the significant drain of resources and focus on the solidly performing locations in the best interest of the Company, our shareholders and our employees,” he adds.
“We have been very committed to doing what we can to maintain a solid performing location there,” says Mr. R. Craig Symonette, Chairman & CEO, Abaco Markets Limited. “Abaco Markets started in Abaco – and this decision to close is something we have struggled with for a long time – trying so many different options and investing a lot of money to make it work. However, we are just not getting enough support to sustain the investment and focus there. While we are very disappointed to close Cost Right Abaco, we are doing what is best for the Company as a whole – particularly given the current economic environment which will require the focus and dedication of all our resources to ensure that the great steps we have made toward stability are safeguarded,” explains Mr. Symonette.
“We very much appreciate our employees in Abaco who have worked hard and tried many things to improve our business there. We know this will be a difficult time for these employees and their families which is why we immediately secured full benefit packages to help with this transition,” says Mr. Watchorn. The Company expects to take a one-time charge of approximately $300k related to the closure – the majority of which being reserved for severance packages. The Company is hopeful that a sale or lease agreement for the building will be put in place in the near future. Abaco Markets Limited requests that any queries, collections or concerns are directed to its corporate headquarters in Nassau (tel 242.325.2122, PO Box SS-6322, Nassau, NP).
I am just waiting for Mr. Marquis’ story on the current PM and his involvement in drug matters, such as Gorda Cay
In response to “DRAMA KING”. As a matter of fact, yes I would still say that Marquis is prejudice. In fact, I’ll go a step further and call him a racist!!! His piece on Sir Lynden is just one of the latest of many articles in which Bahamians are bashed. If you need to read any of them, just Google him. You can read articles written by him and articles about him. Do that and then let me know what you think. But until you do, I don’t think you have much to offer in any way of discussion.
OH Media! We should all be frightened because none of us can truly predict how bad things will get before we come out of this. Yet come out of it we will and with The Grace we will be a better people and Nation!
I will look forward to your honest take on the Marquis “thingy” to come in the near future, I hope.
@Joe Blow
We recognized your concern here JOE. But if you remember, we did not block your comments. In fact you know we have NEVER BLOCKED you, even when you have beaten us with our own switch! LOL!
Yeah but some bloggers wanted to deal with the John Marquis thingy and we could not prepare the article fast enough to allow post to it. So there’s our explanation.
But you know no matter how vile you get JOE, we cannot BLOCK YOU! You make this blog the hot target that it is in the country. You know that! YOu is a BIG TIME SHAREHOLDER! And to LOCK you out is like shutting down the majority voice in the country and letting these minorities take over.
Sorry about that, but thanks for your clarification on the Abaco Markets matter. But we want to ask you however, now that Abaco Markets has closed its Dominoes Branch at the Bridge and now this store in Abaco, this does not means they and those like us with invested monies should be frightened ech?
Bahamas Press/editor
Sincere, if John Marquis was a black man would you call him prejudice? Are you saying this just because he talked about Sir Lynden or do you have other proof in his rantings that he is prejudice? I didnt get the impression that he was. I feel sometimes that for a non-citizen he has “a lot” (too much) to say about the people of ths country.
Media: You recently accused me of deflecting from a headline story and suggested that I might have to be blocked if I strayed again. And all I did was suggest we continue to ask the questions but get on with the more important issues facing our country. How is it that both your comment and those of your contributors have strayed so far away from the topic to the degree that you had only one line that could be connected and they had none?
As a sharehulder of the company, I applaud the closing of that particular location and while I am saddened that people must be let go, they can take comfort in the fact that they will receive a decent package and have medical benefits extended for 6 months. When the Unemployment Bill ( a FNM initiative) is passed they will qualify for further aid should it be needed. Thanks to the company for making this most informative statement.
We’ve all heard the stories of the past Drama King. We’re living in the present. I think John Marquis is a prejudice man to be honest. If you have ever kept abreast of his rantings, maybe you would think so too. Let the man rest in peace and give him the respect he deserves for all the good he did for our country, rather than have his widow(in all her illness) having her late husband smeared by the likes of JOHN fn MARQUIS.
You all hit John Marquis hard. Whilst I know he is DEFINITELY writing this hard hitting stuff to take attention away from how the FNM is messing up this country, spreading lies and making unkept promises, we must also remember that this period he is writing about DID IN FACT take place. Sir Lynden and those boys did A LOT of wrong stuff and benefitted from MANY MANY drug dealers back in the day. And, its not just PLP politicians but plenty who support the FNM as well.
JOHN MARQUIS NEEDS TO GO BACK TO BRITIAN, OR WHATEVER ROCK HE CRAWLED OUT FROM UNDER!!!!
I would like mr.john marquis to answer the following questions.since mr.Marquis claimed that mr.Tynes is an honest man,why mr.Tynes senior never report his son’s criminal activities to the police?why did mr.Tynes senior allow drug money to be in his house?does mr.Marquis expect persons to believe that Tynes junior only transported drug monies and not drugs also?Did mr.Marquis interview Carlos Ledher?A good jounalist never interview one source and ignores to interview the main player/s in a story.How did the drug trade got establish in the United Kingdom?What role did British politicians and business persons play in the drug trade?Are British citizens born drug dealers and crooks since Britian played a major role in the nineteen century Opium trade in China?
CLICO…More signs of the collapse!!!
Trinidad: Finance Minister Closed CLICO Accounts Before Melt Down
CaribWorldNews, PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, Weds. Mar. 11, 2009: Trinidad and Tobago`s Finance Minister, Karen Nunez-Tesheira, closed two U.S. dollar accounts with CLICO Investment Bank before its meltdown this year.
Trinidad news reports indicate that Nunez-Tesheira closed the accounts on December 31, 2008, before they were scheduled to mature later this year.
Documents obtained by the Trinidad Express showed that Nunez-Tesheira paid a `break rate` of 3.5 per cent for closing two accounts at CIB worth a total of US$48,549.91, before they were due to mature on April 30, 2009 and August 13, 2009 respectively.
The bank is one of four CL Financial entities that benefited from a multi-billion-dollar taxpayer bailout approved by T&T`s government last month.
Nunez-Tesheira has claimed in a Parliamentary statement on February 2 that she made the withdrawals because the accounts had matured by December 31, 2008.
Nunez-Tesheira, in a comment to the Express, said she did not realize and was not informed by anyone at CIB that she was breaking the accounts.
`The request was first made verbally. In that initial discussion, no one said to me that what I was doing I was breaking an account,` Nunez-Tesheira was quoted as saying.
All I want say is God don’t like ugly. It’s a shame for NIB to be dragging the little man to court, when you have big time companies, politicians and a well know talk show host who was allowed to go for long period of time without making NIB contributions. They should be targeting people who owes the government thousands of dollars first and then go after the little entrepreneurs who are trying to keep their staff employed doing this recession. Life is not fair in our country, the abuse the little man suffers is worse than the beating Chris Brown put on Rhianna.
Bahamas Press is Never EVER moved when we see what we hear what was circulated by the ‘Toilet Paper’ about Sir Lynden. It is the FNM’s way of Deflection REAL NEWS as they trapped media attention and ultimately the general public.
On last Friday it was Laing in the House talking about who hired who. Well that was ballooned, whilst the the Department of Statistics was informing the public of the LARGEST LEVELS OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN 25 years 12.1%.
Also on Friday Ginn was letting 28 workers go and Isle of Capri announced it’s closure.
Then we saw the deflection by John Marquis. He took another jab at the late Lynden Pindling, The father of the Nation! (WE WILL SAY SOMETHING ON THIS LATER). But whilst that caught the attention of the public again, National Insurance was dragging Bahamians (NOW UNEMPLOYED) into the COURTROOMS forcing payments of NIB. Who remembers when Hubert Ingraham cut over 6,000 BEC LIGHTS OFF? Well this that same curl attack on Bahamians again.
I mean it was so bad for ordinary Bahamians with NIB that a man had to sell his boat, his only means of food, to pay National Insurance, OR HE WAS GOING TO JAIL. He owed NIB $500. NIB SHOULD BE A SHAME OF THEMSELVES DRAGGING BAHAMIANS IN THE COURT, Whilst NIB PAYMENTS BY CLICO BAHAMAS WERE NOT CURRENT!
Also on Monday workers at Cost Right in Abaco was saying goodbye to their employment for good. Like we said before, where there is smoke there is FIRE!
Bahamas Press/Editor
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