Divico Distributors

Business View Caribbean 3 Divico’s products are all imported – 60 percent come from the USA and 40 percent from Europe. The com- pany’s distribution network extends to more than 900 clients in St. Maarten, French St. Martin, St. Barts, An- guilla, Saba, St. Eustatius, Dominica, St. Kitts & Nevis, Antigua, and Tortola. “A typical customer can range from a large supermarket, a large club store, a small convenience store, a gas station, a hotel, a restaurant, a bar, a business. We sell to auto parts stores; we sell to mechanics. We sell to everyone. We have a very, very large portfolio of products,” Khatnani says. That portfolio includes: food and drink; candy, snacks, and chocolate; health and personal care products; baby and pet products; and household and outdoor prod- ucts. In addition to some small, local operators, Divico’s main competition comes from Prime Distributors, the largest wholesale, food distribution company in the Caribbean. “They represent all the competing brands,” says Khatnani. “So, for example, if we do Huggies dia- pers, they do Pampers. Basically, the market is divided between us two and many smaller players.” While Divico can hold its own against Prime, Khatnani says that competition also comes in the form of “par- allel trading,” which exists when an importer finds a cheaper price of a good on the world market and im- ports that good instead of paying the generally higher AT A GLANCE WHO: Divico Distributors WHAT: A wholesale distribution company WHERE: Cole Bay, St. Maarten, N.A. WEBSITE : www.divicodistributors.com