Barbados TravelAdvisor

[KNRX]

Mullins Bay Blog: 'DaCosta Mannings Abandons Speightstown" - http://shar.es/jP0W - #Barbados
less than a minute ago from ShareThis.com
KNRX

[SUE]

Frankie this must be quite worrying another business going - wonder if any of the other stores will close.

[SueW]

That’s a large store, too.
Bought my “mac pie” tin there on the last visit. Might be a good location for Eddie’s to relocate to...

[KNRX]

It seems like whenever Speightstown makes a step forward it takes two backwards. There is just so much blight all over the place - none of which existed when I was growing up. Holetown used to be a backwater to Speightstown now it's light years ahead.

[SueW]

Looks like Denis Kellman is trying to turn MoonTown in to a "destination" hot spot. Wish he would stop tweeting the lunch menu. Makes me hungry.

[SUE]

Strange you should say that KNRX before we came to Bim we had heard of Bridgetown and Speightstown, nothing about Holetown.
Now as you say S'town is getting sidelined and Holetown is booming.

[SueW]

From http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161509432

Barbados company Dacosta Mannings INC has announced scores of job cuts in a month-end shake-up that will see it exiting the lumber business and closing some operations.

The board of directors said that there would be 81 redundant positions at month's end because of "rationalisation measures" being taken to create "a more viable and competitive operation".

Twenty employees applied for voluntary separation and those applications were accepted, the board noted in a statement that followed reports of impending job cuts and business consolidation.

Dacosta Mannings is closing its Speightstown, St Peter store and Warrens, St Michael auto centre in Barbados, but expanding in some areas, with a new store in Cave Shepherd on Broad Street among the plans.

The board blamed "dwindling customer activity" at the Speightstown hardware store for the decision to close the outlet with effect from July 31.

Heightened costs, the saturated nature of the lumber market and lower demand in construction and capital works projects were listed as factors influencing the decision to quit the lumber business.

The board said that in the last two years the Speightstown store and the lumber yard at Fontabelle, St Michael, "continued to be very marginal in performance".

It also announced the closure of the DMI Auto Centre in Warrens at month-end but said "we have decided to boost our auto centre capacity at the purpose-built Brandons (St Michael) facility".

At Fontabelle, the hardware department has been expanded.

The Tile & Bath outlet, which has had its own building at Fontabelle, is to move out and be incorporated into the main store there.

A new Broad Street store, with a staff of 20, is expected to open in September. The board said this development lessened the impact of the cuts the company has had to make.

"Although businesses must continually change- and DMI has seen many changes since 2006 following the strategic review which was conducted at that time-the company is now better positioned to not only face the current economic times but to take advantage of growth in the economy when it returns," the board said.

[Gem]

Very sorry about the Speightstown store and for the staff who have lost their jobs.

Gem