By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Morton Salt has described the sale of its Bahamas operation as a “win-win” for all parties - including its employees - and pledged that Inagua will “remain a vital component of our long-term supply mix”.

The US-headquartered salt producer, in a statement responding to Tribune Business inquiries, sought to reassure over the future of Inagua and the southern Bahamas’ largest employer by asserting that it will remain the operation’s “anchor customer” via a supply deal once the sale to Grand Bahama-based Lusca Group closes.

“Morton Salt is excited to partner with the Lusca Group on the announced transaction. Inagua has long served an important role in helping Morton Salt meet its supply needs, and while the pending transaction will convert Morton Salt from owner to anchor customer, Inagua salt will remain a vital component of Morton Salt’s long-term supply mix,” Morton Salt promised.

“Equally, if not more important, we believe that capital investments required to expand the Inagua operation – and potentially develop other business opportunities on the island – will benefit our Inagua employees and the local community. Accordingly, Morton Salt believes the announced transaction offers a ‘win, win’ outcome for all stakeholders.”

It is understood that Morton Salt, and its US-headquartered owner, Stone Canyon Industry Holdings, were not actively seeking to sell the Inagua operation but, when Lusca Group came along, felt the offer was too good to pass up given the seeming benefits for itself, the buyer, employees and the island as a whole.

Morton Salt was also seeking to reduce the risk posed by the increased frequency and strength of hurricanes, plus heavy summer rainfalls, to its Inagua operation. Last year’s relatively modest storm and rainfall totally destroyed the salt brine at its 300,000 acre property, plus a lot of crystalliers, and halted and disrupted salt production for several months.

The Inagua operation generates between 750,000 and 900,000 tonnes of salt exports to Morton’ US operations per annum, depending on rainfall, storms and other weather-related events, and their increasing frequency and unpredictability meant the salt producer was becoming ever-conscious of this risk.

But, while Morton Salt was prepared to invest further capital in the Inagua operation, it is thought this outlay is out-paced and exceeded by what Lusca Group is planning. And not just for the salt operation, but for the rest of Inagua’s community from a development perspective. As a Bahamas-based operation, Lusca Group is seen as being able to bring more direct focus to the needs on Inagua.

The two sides - Morton Salt and Lusca Group - are seeking to close the sale before year-end 2026. And, while some employees in Inagua and their union representatives have voiced concerns about becoming a standalone operation, and the rebranding to Salt Bahamas with the loss of the ‘Morton’ name, this is seen as opening up possibilities for expansion as it can sell to other customers beyond Morton.

No longer will Inagua, and the island, be solely tied to supplying Morton Salt as it will remain the “anchor customer”. However, Richard Ingraham, president of the Bahamas Industrial Manufacturers & Allied Workers Union (BIMAWU), which represents Morton Salt’s line staff, told Tribune Business that workers surprised by the news of a sale at this time because the company has enjoyed “a very good harvest”.

“Everybody is sitting up,” he said. “They really were surprised. They were calm but everybody was just straight up like ‘wow’. Everybody was like ‘wow’. We’ve been doing well. We’ve almost harvested one million tonnes of salt. That’s for this year. We started in March. We were down for a while because of the rain and storm from last year. It’s been a very good harvest.

“As it stands right now, everybody is sceptical at this time because it’s something that just came up. Nobody was prepared at this time, after the company’s been doing so well in production. We weren’t expecting to hear the news that the company is being sold to the Lusca Group.”

Employees and their union representatives were informed of the proposed sale last week by company management. “The people here in Inagua are pretty calm, the employees are pretty calm... Right now we’re expecting for the best to happen and they promised us none of our pensions, none of our industrial agreement benefits, will be touched. Everything will remain the same.

“What people are really shocked about is that Morton Salt has been around for 60-plus years, and what’s really shocked everybody is the brand, the name change, is going to be history-making.” Mr Ingraham said the union was due to meet with its members last night to get more input on their feelings and concerns about the Lusca Group deal, and stand ready to advocate on their behalf if needed.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Philip Davis KC said the Lusca Group and its subsidiary Grand Bahama Salt Company, have already engaged with the Government and are expected to present their business plans for Inagua in the near future.

“The potential purchasers have been in conversations with the Government. We encourage them to seek to come with the arrangement for the acquisition. It’s now for us to sit down and see how we roll out the businesses that they want to do there,” Mr Davis told ZNS at the weekend.

According to the Prime Minister, Lusca Group has defined a brand vision for Inagua that it intends to present to the Government as part of efforts to ensure the initiative benefits the local community. “They have a brand vision for Inagua. They’ll be putting that vision to us very soon for us to look at, and to partner with them to ensure that what is happening here benefits the people of Inagua,” he added.

Mr Davis asserted that the transaction signals growing international investor confidence in The Bahamas, particularly as the country continues to attract foreign direct investment across key sectors.

“Related to this new turn of events and initiative, again, it shows that the international community and the international business community finds favour with us and they have confidence in the country to be able to invest the kind of money that they invest in our country,” said Mr Davis.

Mr Ingraham, though, said he, Morton Salt workers and the wider Inagua community are waiting to hear the details of Lusca Group’s plans. “Man, listen. That sounds good but we want to see it happen,” the union chief said. “You just can’t talk; you have to do it. When management told me about that, I said it sounds good. Morton Salt has done a lot of giving back to the community.”

Lusca Group is linked to the Liwathon Group, which has acquired and restarted operations at Grand Bahama’s former South Riding Point oil storage terminal.

Tribune Business research found that both Lusca Group and Liwathon’s Bahamas operation share the same phone number and Grand Bahama address, at 100 Grand Bahama Highway, East End, on their respective websites. The prospective Morton Bahamas purchaser’s website also referred to “strategic storage facilities in The Bahamas and Estonia” - the precise locations where Liwathon has assets.