* Brewery lasts year on just 35% of revenues

* Aims to return all 140 staff by end-October

* Targets November to produce other brands

Pic of production restart e-mailed. Jimmy Sands on right

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian brewery yesterday hailed the return of its own-brand beers as the difference between "being in business or out of business" after surviving for a year on just 35 percent of normal revenues.

Jimmy Sands, the Bahamian Brewery and Beverage Company’s founder, told Tribune Business the firm had struck "a hell of a milestone" as the "first full run" of its Sands and Sands Light beers came off the production line almost 13 months after its manufacturing plant was devastated by Hurricane Dorian's storm surge.

Disclosing that the vertically-integrated brewer, wholesaler and retailer "has a chance of survival now that we're back in business", Mr Sands said the loss of brewing capacity meant the firm had to ride out the past year and COVID-19 without 65 percent - almost two-thirds - of its regular income streams.

Praising his workforce and expatriate German technicians for "a real team effort" to rebuild the Bahamian Brewery and Beverage Company, he voiced optimism that all 140 of his staff will be able to return to full-time employment by end-October with the restoration of brewing capacity.

While the COVID-19 pandemic initially forced him to furlough 100 workers, Mr Sands said some 120 were now "back to work" as he unveiled a second target to accomplish before October's close - that of ensuring Sands and Sands Light were once again fully distributed throughout The Bahamas.

Although the brewery will be operating at 85-90 percent capacity for some two months as it "gets all the tweaks out of" its new equipment, the Bahamian Brewery and Beverage chief said he aimed to begin production in November on all the company's other lines - Strong Back Stout, High Rock Lager, Bush Crack Beer, Triple B Malt and Sands Passion Radler.

And, having seemingly survived the loss of "tens of millions of dollars" due to the loss of Dorian, Mr Sands expressed hope that the company's comeback will serve as an inspiration to other Freeport and Grand Bahama business owners that there is "light at the end of the tunnel" as they, too, seek to rebound from the twin perils produced by Dorian and COVID-19.

"It's a very important step we have taken here," Mr Sands told Tribune Business of brewing's restart. "It may mean being in business or out of business. Between Dorian, which destroyed the brewery, and COVID-19, which delayed the rebuild, and the result is that for 12-and-a-half months we we have not been able to produce anything.

"Now we're back in business we have a chance at survival, and making this brewery bigger and better that it was before. This is a hell of a milestone. If it had played out any longer we would have had some problems."

The sale of Sands Beer and the other domestic brands had accounted for 65 percent of the Bahamian Brewery and Beverage Company's revenues pre-Dorian, Mr Sands added, and their absence forced the company to rely on just one-third of its business - the distribution of Budweiser and other imported labels, and associated retail sales - to carry it through the past year.

"That's what's been keeping us afloat, but the margins are not that high," he disclosed, while confirming that millions of dollars had been invested over and above the Dorian-related insurance claim as this was "not the answer to all financial requirements".

"What we have been doing in the past year is baling the water out of the boat," Mr Sands told Tribune Business, "but hopefully we've caught everything up and the company can get back on its feet again. With the loss of revenue, the loss of machinery, you're talking tens of millions of dollars.

"We've been able, without tens of millions of dollars, to keep this company afloat. It's been a monumental job, a monumental feat, when one considers it's a Bahamian company that doesn't have any international corporate backing.

"We had to bear the full brunt of it, and put it back together. Now we've put it back together we have to sail the boat again without the pump."

Describing himself and all his staff as "very elated" at brewing's return, he described the company's rebuilding as a true team effort and praised his staff as well as the expatriate technicians. "It wasn't me who put it together; it was we," Mr Sands said.

"We're back up to 85-90 percent staffing levels, and hopefully we will bring on the rest by the end of next month. Hopefully we will have 100 percent staffing by then. When COVID-19 came down I had 100 people furloughed, but now I've got 120 people back to work and have got to get the rest back as well.

"This is a breath of fresh air that is desperately needed for Grand Bahama. People up here have been catching eternal hell, and this is at least a sign there is light at the end of the tunnel. It gives confidence to people in Grand Bahama that things can be put back, and instead of all the negatives there's some positive developments up here that will hopefully rub off on other commodities."

Mr Sands said the "first case" of beer came off the Bahamian Brewery and Beverage Company's production line on Friday ahead of yesterday's "first full run", with Sands and Sands Light set to be distributed by the can, keg and bottle.

"The Grand Bahama market will be the first market to be fully supplied," he added, "and when Grand Bahama is done all the other islands will follow. I'm hoping by the end of October, if not before, we will have nationwide distribution.

"Initially production will be at 85-90 percent, and by the end of October, hopefully we will be at 100 percent. The new equipment is highly technical and sensitive, so we have to get all the tweaks out. Once we do that we'll be good to go."

Mr Sands said he had wanted to invest further to make the Bahamian Brewery and Beverage Company's facilities even more resilient against Dorian-type storms, but said COVID-19 restrictions had forced him to defer these ambitions as he was unable to bring in the persons necessary to do the work.

"My own focus was to get this brewery back up and going, and hope to Christ no other storm came. Thank God we dodged a bullet there," he told this newspaper. "It's a lot of weight off my shoulders knowing we have got the brewery back up and running. You have to have stickability."

Mr Sands said the number of of expatriate German technicians had been reduced from a high of 26 to the present eight amid hopes all will be able to return home next month.