The head of City Market has blamed a group of local distributors for the demise of the supermarket chain.
Mark Finlayson, president of parent company Bahamas Supermarkets Limited (BSL), noted that a number of factors, including overwhelming debt levels and a tarnished brand, played their part in the supermarket chain's failure.
However, Finlayson told Guardian Business the biggest factor in the chain's fall was wholesalers that did not honor agreements.
"In December 2010, the Wholesalers Association which is made up of approximately 12 wholesalers, came to me and said that they were in the hole by 'x' amount of dollars to Bahamas Supermarkets. We agreed that we would pay them and they would give five weeks worth of credit," Finlayson claimed.
"There is no credit limit on that, whatever the normal business was in five weeks, they would give that to us. In some cases, people owed up to $600,000. We gave them $300,000 plus dollars as a part of the agreement. But here is the problem - the majority of those people, as soon as they got that money, they never lived up to their agreement."
The BSL chief spoke candidly to Guardian Business as to why he is left with no choice but to sell the supermarket chain. City Market is now in talks to SuperValue to possibly unload the remaining five stores.
At its peak, the brand had eight locations in Nassau and three in Grand Bahama.
Finlayson revealed that the City Market brand has been faced with challenges for a number of years, some that existed long before his family bought the business.
"If you took a look at the history of the company from the time Winn Dixie took it over, the same local wholesalers did the same thing to the previous owners where they worked out what they were going to supply and deliver to the stores," he shared.
"There was a case where a warehouse was emptied into one of their stores. The point is, they did not live up to their agreement and that is where the problem is."
After investing nearly $20 million to resurrect the City Market brand, Finlayson said he is now looking to those delinquent wholesalers to be held accountable for their part in City Market's demise.
He continued: "You can't go into a contractual arrangement with somebody and then turn around afterwards and breach that contract. So when damage happens, people assume that they can just walk away."
Finlayson confirmed to Guardian Business that he is now considering legal action against some of those wholesalers in an effort to recover their investment.
"As far as we are concerned, the investment that we have put inside there, we are going to recover from them. Close to $20 million has been invested into the City Market food store chain. I am looking to get every penny of that back," he noted.

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