December 2016 | Business View Caribbean

68 69 S. ABED & COMPANY LTD. who will shop in Panama, Curaçao, or North America and buy through middlemen in much smaller quantities. But they’re buying a product that is already finished.They have no say as to styling or color range. So,we are buying much cheaper to begin with and, more importantly,we’re buying styling and colors that we have influenced. “The second group is the larger stores who, to a large ex- tent,will buy from a distributor on the island.The distributors on the island are buying from the Orient, but again, they’re working for margins and then they’re reselling to the retailers. We have the advantage of being much cheaper because we’re vertical, and,more importantly, we’re very, very deep in our lines. If you come into my turf, you have to be as deep as we are; you have to have as much inventory as we have; you have to have as many styles as possible that are currently available. So those that compete with us will come in second and third, every time.Our strengths are quality, pricing, local value added, and variety of merchandise available.” In addition,Abed says that unlike the big box stores that have come to the island, abed’s has continued to grow because it can better respond to its customers’ needs and demands.“We have the ability to change and be responsive to our customer base.The big box stores, by and large, are managed from foreign entities who don’t have the ability to do that,”he states.“We keep growing our product offerings based on customer feed- back.And for the last six to eight years,we have recorded growth in revenue, year in and year out, anywhere from five to seven and a half percent. And this is when our GDP,as a country,has shrunkby over eight percent in the last ten years. So,we know that the pie is not growing, but we’re getting a larger slice of the pie from our competitors.” Finally, Abed gives credit to his employees who “go out and hustle everyday for our reve- nue. I know that no business can be sustained without an extremely loyal and proficient team, AT A GLANCE S. ABED & COMPANY WHAT: S. Abed & Company Ltd. WHERE: Bridgetown, Barbados WEBSITE: www.abeds.bb INSURANCE BROKERS TO THE CARIBBEAN. CGM Gallagher is one of the largest and oldest insurance brokers in the Caribbean, with the regional resources and local insight to make the best insurance broking decisions for our clients. www.cgmgallagher.com Any Challenge, Any Risk, Anywhere