By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Andros resort and fishing lodge operators yesterday asserted “you have almost have to be a brain surgeon” to manage supply chain logistics with costs having jumped 25-40 percent “in the past year”.

Jeff Birch, owner of Small Hope Bay Lodge, told the Andros Business Outlook he remains “bullish” on the future despite the uncertainties caused by Donald Trump’s tariff policies and domestic challenges such as high utilities costs and the need for more reliable ocean freight transportation.

He was backed by Elizabeth Bain, the Mangrove Cay Club’s manager, who revealed to attendees at the same conference that her fishing lodge’s freight expenses have “doubled” over the past two years. Suggesting that these costs could be eased by government tax concessions, she added that accessing these via the Hotels Encouragement Act is still too bureaucratic and time consuming.

And, on the flip side, the Mangrove Cay Club chief said that “the things I’m being asked to do by the Government have increased”. Ms Bain singled out the Department of Inland Revenue, in particular, for double standards as it demands she respond to its information requests if dissatisfied with a VAT return within five days, but “takes months” to reply her queries.

She added that the fishing lodge has “made ourselves as self-sufficient as possible”, with its own water supply and back-up generators, and is now “waiting for the day” when Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service starts providing mobile/cellular connectivity in The Bahamas as well as Internet access.

Asked the “main challenges to financial stability” that confront Family Island resort operators, Mr Birch replied: “I think one of the main challenges is utilities. That has been sort of addressed today [see other article on Page 1B]. Hopefully they won’t go up much more. I don’t think they will go down. Things have a tendency not to go down.”

While “I would have said staffing would have been an issue”, he added that this was “not really a problem” for Small Hope Bay Lodge because the employees “are part of the family and have a tendency to stay employed for a long period of time”. Staff even dine with the resort’s guests “any time they want”.

Mr Birch instead identified supply chain management and logistics as one of his property’s key challenges. “Obviously Andros does not have critical mass, so we don’t have an appliance store, we don’t have a hardware store. Wood is a bit hit and miss, hardware is a bit hit and miss,” he added.

“So I think getting things to the island, you almost have to be a brain surgeon. Your between Makers Air, the boat coming from up north, the boat coming from Nassau. If we are going to offer fresh vegetables, nice food; it’s fresh, everyone is looking for the fresh stuff nowadays, it’s very hard. As far as costs, they have gone up 25-40 percent in the past year.”

Mr Birch urged Bahamian resort owners and operators to “talk to others to find out what they are doing to make things easier and better and so forth”, adding: “Hopefully later on, later on being in the next few years, we’ll end up with more reliable transportation by sea so things come in on a reliable basis.”

Ms Bain, responding to the same question, said of her lodge’s main challenges: “Rising costs for sure; in terms of freight for sure. My freight expense has doubled, I would say, in the last two years. The price of fuel is huge for us as well, which is why the impact of the [Trump] tariffs may be huge for us. That’s a challenge that has not yet solidified if you want to put it that way.

“I think in terms of operations, some things are just difficult getting them. If there was any way to make getting things easier for us, it would be through concessions from the Government. We can apply for them through the Hotels Encouragement Act, but that’s a long process. It takes about six weeks to get approval for all the documents you have to submit.

“And there’s a limited amount of time given to actually import those goods. That’s challenging in that it sometimes takes longer to get things than you’re allowed. I had to ask for an extension on my last agreement. It took six weeks to get the exemption, so if there was some way to streamline that, make it easier... That process has not changed in the 25 years I’ve been in business,” Ms Bain added.

“It would be good to see something happen in that way.” Kerry Fountain, the Bahama Out Islands Promotion Board director who was moderating the panel discussion, then quoted Robert Sands, the former Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) president, who said “We need to have less red tape and more red carpet.”

Asserting that “I would agree with that completely”, Ms Bain added: “In addition to that, the things I’m being asked to do by government have increased. I’m being asked to do more. In a small business like mine, it’s like everything funnels down to me.

“So the Inland Revenue, for example. They’re asking me for more information than they ever did before when I submit VAT returns. If they don’t like my returns, they may ask for information and give me five days to respond. It takes months for them to respond back to me, and that reciprocal exchange of information is not there.

“There are other issues, dealing with the level of customer service, if we can call it that, that we get - particularly from Inland Revenue,” she added. “Ultimately, again, what we’ve had to do over the years is that we rely very little on Water & Sewerage Corporation. We have our own water system, we have back-up generators.

“We have one landline that no longer works. We got rid of it. I have one landline that doesn’t work, and BTC’s solution for resolving that problem was to call forward that to my cell phone. We now use Starlink for Internet connectivity, and I’m waiting for the day when we can use Starlink for cellular connectivity as well. We’ve made ourselves as self-sufficient as we possibly can, but that has been a huge difficulty.”

Ms Bain, though, said she joined Mr Birch in having “a very bullish” outlook on her lodge’s future business prospects. “Booking remains strong; I’ve not seen softening, but I am seeing a shorter timeframe between the booking and the event,” she added. “So I wouldn’t exactly call it last minute but it’s less than a year.”