Local business climate has tested citizens resolve - Banks
Stabroek News
February 6, 2007
Banks DIH Chairman and Managing Director Clifford Reis said the social and business climate which has prevailed in Guyana over recent times has tested the faith and resolve of every Guyanese and business entity.
Reis likened operating a local business to attempting to swim in a vat of molasses during his address to shareholders, distributors, employees and special invitees at the Annual Shareholders Meeting in New Amsterdam (NA) hosted recently.
"What does one do when tested beyond one's capacity to effectively respond within those less than perfect conditions? The worst possible alternative is to give in and go with the flow" he said. Reis said the company decided that regardless of the uncertainties of the future, "to maintain the legacy of Banks DIH."
Banks transformed NA's New Street, which was renamed Peter D'Aguiar Street in honour of the late chairman and politician, almost overnight, into an arena of splendour surrounded by stacks of beverage boxes and decorated with balloons and posters under huge tents. "Banks DIH is a story of relationships which have been embraced and sustained over the years," Reis told the gathering, "and we are committed to these relationships which have developed as a result of our activities."
The Berbice Branch copped two of the company's three annual awards for the last financial year winning the Chairman's Award and its Qik Serv Restaurant was voted 'The Most Outstanding Restaurant.' Regional Manager Reginald Matthews who remigrated last year to resume leadership of the branch, in brief remarks, said that overall sales in the region last year totalled $1.247 billion with the restaurant earning $6.5 million. The branch recorded after-tax profits totalling $23 million last year compared to $17 million the previous year. It also recorded an increase in sales of $70 million last year compared to 2005 and doubled its profits after tax.
Reis told the shareholders that based on the company's performance "the economic outlook which shapes and affects most economic activities in the country, was influenced by the uncertainties preceding last year's general elections; the continuing fear over the crime situation; the rapidly escalating price for fuel and energy and the silent increases in the rate against which the Guyana dollar was traded." He said the continuing migration of skilled labour "was an additional and unwanted burden on the business community. The economic environment in which the company operated last year resulted in mixed results and forced us to reduce expenses including re-structuring the labour force and changing the working hours of our restaurants."
The company is in discussions with a US brewer and bottler to manufacture and market Banks Beer for the Guyanese and West Indian communities. The beer should have been launched in the US in September but the company was advised against it because of the then imminent winter season. The beer is now expected to be launched in April under one label while discussions continue.
The chairman also said Banks plans to buy a new 1.6 megawatt generator which will use Bunker C fuel and should be installed before the end of the financial year. This will bring its total capacity to 2.6 megawatts having purchased a one megawatt generator last year. The beverage giant also intends to spend $20 million on environmental programmes including waste management and recycling products and waste in the company as it seeks to protect the environment.
At the end of the ceremony Banks gave monetary donations to Plegtanker Primary, East Bank Berbice and NA's Tutorial Academy.