Had Trimart Supermarket closed its doors permanently it would have taken down several small businesses with it, owing them millions of dollars.
Defending the actions of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI) a week ago to bring creditors and Trimart officials together in an effort to keep the supermarket going, BCCI president Andy Armstrong said it was do or die for Trimart and many of its creditors.
Armstrong denied that BCCI had a special agenda to bail out big businesses while not offering the same assistance to smaller ones.
“It was definitely a case of us trying to save the small businesses, although the large businesses are members of the chamber.
“Some of our members really took a back seat on this. It was spearheaded by and on behalf of the small members. At the end of the day, the big companies will find a way to get through and even if they can’t, they can afford to absorb the loss better than the small companies.”
Trimart has accumulated debt of $20 million including $1.7 million in rent arrears to NSR, owners of the sprawling Mall Internationale at Haggatt Hall, St Michael.
Armstrong, head of food distribution company Armstrong Agencies, told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that “Trimart is really Julie’N in different clothing because there is still some common shareholding” and former businessman Neville Rowe was “involved” in NSR.
Rescue plan
The BCCI boss said eight years ago when Julie’N got into financial difficulty, a consortium comprising Hanschell Inniss, R.L. Seale, Brydens, Stokes & Bynoe and Tweedside Supplies, who were owed substantial amounts of money, “crafted a plan to save Julie’N under a different name”.
“That has never been a fully healthy partnership and Trimart has struggled for a number of reasons over the years.
“When we saw that Trimart was struggling again and it appeared to us that history was going to repeat itself, that a few big players might get through but the majority of companies that traded with them would be left with nothing . . . . we felt that we had to take a more proactive role.
“We felt we couldn’t allow ourselves to be the victims and find at the end of the day, maybe, the banks got through and the landlord got through and by the time they were finished, there was nothing left for anyone else.”
Trimart Haggatt Hall was reopened last week, saving the jobs of dozens of employees with ANSA McAL, operators of Brydens, and Stokes & Bynoe taking over as the major owner of the supermarket.
Transactions with suppliers are now on a cash-only basis.