The establishment of megastore Cost-U-Less in Barbados will benefit the local economy, Tom Kallio, vice-president and general manager of the North American-based retailer, has said.
Furthermore, he said the concessions granted the company were made to attract foreign investment and that was what they brought here.
Kallio was responding to a claim made by Opposition Leader Owen Arthur that the concessions given by the Ministry of Finance were “extraordinary and outrageous”.
Arthur said the tax relief granted would likely give the retailer an unfair advantage over similar businesses in the distributive retail sector and “put people’s jobs at peril”.
Kallio said that in addition to getting the concessions for the construction of the facility at Welches, St Thomas, they chose to invest in the island because of a “skilled labour force and the state of the economy”. (MM)
