City Markets' $6.558 million net loss for the first nine months of its current financial year exceeds what the company lost for its entire fiscal 2009, management accounts have revealed, with top-line sales off 18.5 per cent for the year to March 31, 2010.

The accounts for the company's holding entity, publicly traded Bahamas Supermarkets, which were released on Friday as part of its settlement with the Securities Commission over charges related to late filing of its financials, reveal a spectacular destruction of shareholder value to the tune of $28.805 million since 2007. Since Winn-Dixie sold its majority 78 per cent stake in Bahamas Supermarkets to the BSL Holdings buyout group, the company has seen retained earnings worth $12.874 million as at June 27, 2007, converted into a $15.931 million accumulated deficit as at March 31, 2010.

That deficit has resulted from persistent heavy losses in Bahamas Supermarkets' 2008, 2009 and current financial year, which collectively total around $26 million, plus the $2.749 million dividend payment that was, with hindsight, an ill-advised decision to make.

Neither Derek Winford, Bahamas Supermarkets' chief executive, nor Basil Sands, the company's chairman, could be contacted for comment. However, the accounts by themselves paint a grim picture, and tell a story in their own right.

For City Markets' net losses for the year to March 31, 2010, have increased by 35.4 per cent year-over-year to $6.578 million, as opposed to a $4.844 million net loss for the same period last year.

That translates into a $1.43 loss per share, compared to a $1.06 per share loss in fiscal 2009, with the $6.578 million loss for the first nine months exceeding Bahamas Supermarkets' $6.069 million loss for the previous full year.

Much of City Markets' immediate financial woes are related to the sharp decline in its top-line net sales, which fell by 18.5 per cent in the nine months to March 31, 2010. The drop, from $93.059 million a year ago to $76.022 million this year, leaves the company struggling to break the $100 million sales threshold for 2010, and also indicates that it may still be losing market share in a food retailing industry that has become increasingly competitive via new entrants such as Robin Hood and Phil's Food Services.

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