By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Super Value’s owner is voicing optimism that the supermarket chain has “held back inflation for the rest of the year” through to January 2026 by forward buying the products that generate the “bulk” of sales.

Rupert Roberts told Tribune Business that the 13-store group has targeted the 20 percent of products that make-up 80 percent of its sales for bulk purchases in advance so that it can lock in key commodity prices amid ongoing global economic uncertainty sparked by Donald Trump’s trade and tariff policies.

“I don’t see any inflation coming down the pike and we’ve taken extra precautions,” he revealed. “We’ve gone ahead and locked commodities through the end of this year through January next year to hold back inflation. We’re guaranteeing existing prices now through January; anything that we bring into the warehouse.

“Twenty percent of the items represent 80 percent of the sales, so those are the items we have gone ahead and purchased with pallet and container loads. The bulk of the volume we’ve covered, and we think we’ve held back inflation for the rest of this year. We hope that’s the way it goes.”

Anticipating the trade and tariff war that has now erupted between the US and China, with both levying triple-digit border tariffs on imports from the other, Mr Roberts said one of the first items that Super Value “locked in” via bulk purchases was butane gas cannisters.

“We import all of our butane gas from China,” he added. “Some people don’t have the big butane stoves and use the little cans. We sell hundreds of them a day, little cans of butane gas. We’re buying containers out of China, a lot of merchandise out of China. They were the first purchase orders we locked in through January.”

Mr Roberts likened purchasing bulk food commodities in advance to trading in the global stock markets as when an order is placed or confirmed - that same morning or afternoon - can now result in a 10 percent difference in the price that is obtained from suppliers and wholesalers.

“We just don’t sit around and let what happens happen,” he told this newspaper. “We buy and manage. It’s getting to be very interesting. Purchasing commodities is like trading in the stock market; sometimes, between the morning and afternoon, means a 10 percent differential in price. You take the offers when they offer.”

The Super Value chief said rapidly-changing prices means food retailers need faster action from price control and the Government’s Consumer Affairs Department when it comes to approving alterations in shelf pricing so that Bahamian consumers can benefit from lower costs

Arguing that “price competition is the best price control”, Mr Roberts said: “This is where we have hurdles with price control. We put in for a new corn beef price, but price control is not in a hurry to approve the new price. We put in for a new corn beef price, trying to beat the market, they should give us a quick review and not hold us up.

“The other thing with price control is you have to bring in a shipment, show proof of importation, before they approve a price increase. There’s a lot of change we need with price control, but they won’t listen, thinking we’re trying to get some advantage on the public when we’re trying to beat the world system and help consumers.

“This price control legislation is more than 50 years old. There have been changes. I think we’re the only country with price controls. It adds to the cost of living instead of keeping it down. Price competition is the best price control,” he added.

“If price control says we can sell corn beef at $2.69 a can, what do you think all merchants are going to do? They will sell at $2.69 per can. We’ve sold as low as $2.15. There’d be some competition if it wasn’t price controlled. There’s two sides. They don’t see our side and we don’t see their side.”

With corn beef remaining a focus for Super Value, Mr Roberts said the supermarket chain is seeking to source two additional top-tier brands from Uruguay which, along with Brazil, is the product’s leading exporter. “We’ve secured Brazil and are moving to Uruguay,” he confirmed.

“Uruguay has the best corn beef and we’re trying to get two top ones out of Uruguay. As an extra precaution we’re trying to get the two best brands from Uruguay. China buys fresh; they don;t buy in the can, which is why we have to go all out.”

Noting that Super Value’s 60 anniversary celebrations are coming up in August, Mr Roberts said he had been looking at a newspaper advertisement from when the supermarket chain was first founded and comparing prices from then to those that are charged now.

“Prices then were about 10 percent of what they are now,” he disclosed. “Anything that is $10 now was $1 then. Looking at it, you wonder how product that had been manufactured so cheaply and inexpensively then, and compare it to now. Freight costs more than the actual cost of the commodity. Then inflation just keeps soaring higher...

“That’s the way the world works. That’s what we fight every day. We don’t take the prices we are offered. We try to beat them down.” As an example of this effort, Mr Roberts cited “a big decision” that Super Value had to make last year between pallet stacking and floor stacking.

While the former “could be 5-8 percent more”, it is faster involving three-minute unloads and saves on labour costs when compared to floor stacking, which is manual-intensive and requires three persons to unload a container of corn beef. “One man has to handle 24 cans when you can handle a pallet with a forklift in one-tenth of the time,” Mr Roberts explained.

“There are many decisions we have to make directly to keep prices down. We have the warehouse space. Whatever it takes to keep inflation down, we’re doing. We’ve even cut more doors in the warehouse to facilitate more speed to get the merchandise in one side of the warehouse and out to stores on the other side. The one thing we cannot beat is the traffic.”

Mr Roberts said moving products to the chain’s 13 stores would be much quicker and simpler at night, given the reduced traffic on New Providence’s roads, but he acknowledged that the shipping docks operate during daylight hours only while labour and overtime costs would likely also increase.