By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamian Brewery & Beverage Company is targeting early 2013 to break into the Florida export market with its Sands beer, a move its founder anticipates will create another 10 jobs initially.

Disclosing to Tribune Business that he had been forced to turn down “many, many requests” to supply his products to markets such as the US, Canada and Europe, Jimmy Sands said the Freeport-based company was looking to further expand its premises.

“Since the initial build-out of the Brewery, we’ve made two additions to it in five years, which is quite remarkable,” he told Tribune Business, “and we have room to do some more.”

Confirming that expansion plans were “in place” to facilitate the Bahamian Brewery & Beverage Company’s ambitions, Mr Sands added: “I’m now looking into the export side of things, but again I’m going to start off very small and build into it.

“The initial export is going to be minimal, but I have to break the ice and get over there. We’ve been receiving requests from all markets of the world - Canada, the US and Europe - but initially it will be Florida.

“We’ve had many, many requests, and had to turn them down because we were not in the position to do so. I’m hoping for the early part of next year to start Florida. It’s going to be very small, very minimal at first until we get feedback. This is a whole new game to us, and it will probably add another 10 jobs.”

That would take Bahamian Brewery & Beverage Company’s workforce to around 70-75 persons, the company having already more than-quadrupled the initial 14 staff it took on when it opened in late 2007.

Explaining that his immediate goal was to take Bahamian Brewery & Beverage Company to “solid profitability”, Mr Sands said he started the company to have something he could pass on to his four children.

“One of the main reasons I did it was that I was in my late 40s when Butler & Sands was sold, and I was too young to sit back for the rest of my life, so decided to get back into the business and open something because of my children,” he revealed.

Mr Sands added that he also wanted to prove that Bahamians could successfully manufacture and produce things, and go international, given that foreign firms seemed to be the only ones who felt they could win in this area.

“These international groups coming into this country seem to receive all sorts of concessions, whereas Bahamians seem to be excluded or overlooked. I feel discriminated against - I’m a second class citizen in my own country,” he added.

While Bahamian Brewery & Beverage Company had hit the sales forecasts and targets Mr Sands had set for the company over the past five years, manufacturing costs - especially energy - had taken him aback.

“It has been difficult. It has been more difficult than I anticipated,” he told Tribune Business.

“I knew I was up for a good run at it. What I didn’t expect was the overall production costs to be as high as they are. That has to do with energy, most of it. That was the disappointing part. I see the sales that I wanted to achieve, but the cost of production was higher than I anticipated.”

Bahamian Brewery & Beverage Company’s new store and warehouse on Nassau Street is now being targeted for a pre-Christmas completion, and will take the company’s network of wholly-owned retail outlets to seven. It already has four stores in Nassau, one in Grand Bahama and another in Eleuthera.

“I think we’ve done remarkably well considering it’s a private company, no international backing and all private label,” Mr Sands said. “We’ve done extremely well considering the big giant we’re up against.

“I met my expectations, and we’ve achieved the initial numbers all the way up to date.”