Mark Finlayson is the “businessman” responsible for the deterioration of Solomon’s Mines. His next victim seems to be the City Market foodstore chain.
The self-proclaimed businessman, labelled a “bafoon” by business experts, ran Solomon’s Mines into the ground. Just recently, he and his cronies purchased the City Market food chain with money no one knows where he got.
Just a few months ago, employees at Solomon’s Mines were complaining that they weren’t getting paid. This was while Mr Finlayson and his cronies were living it up in high style.
Now, Finlayson and his group have bought City Market and claim they know how to fix the company. Business experts have little faith.
The Finlayson group’s aquisition of the City Market comes five years after the group initially tried to acquire a majority stake in the company, but failed in that bid.
“The good news is we started this work back in 2005 and we know exactly what it is we need to do in order to fix this company,” Finlayson told a newspaper after his group bought the majority interest in the ailing food chain.
But the market is different now that it was in 2005. Whatever plans the group may have had back then are most likely obsolete.
Problems Right From The Start
In a move that portends the problems to come, the company has been locked out of its Oakes Field location, presumably for non-payment of rent.
Finlayson calls it a lease dispute, saying the company was slapped with a “hefty” rent increase at the aging location. A legal battle looks set to occur.
But many companies have such challenges, especially in this difficult business environment, yet they do not get locked out of their location.
Locks have been put on the Oakes Field store, Finlayson says, because the old lease has been terminated.
Mr Finlayson admits that 21-days rent has not been paid. He says he is trying to meet with the landlord who wants to sign a new lease at an increased rent.
“I am not going to be forced into a new lease,” Finlayson told a local newspaper.
Landlord Neil Mactaggart collects the rent for both the Oakes Field and Village Road City Market locations. The agreement for the eastern store still remains in good standing for the time being.
The recent lock-out has led to roughly 50 employees at the store having to being relocated into other branches throughout Nassau, a great inconvenience to some.
Customers who live in the Oakes Field area and rely on the food store are also affected. After months of the food store being out-of-stock on just about everything, the new owners of the 11-store chain promised to get items back on the shelves and return to normalcy. But this latest fiasco leaves at least the Oakes Field customers without food, once again. It’s not clear how long any legal battle would last.
Meanwhile, Finlayson, is talking about grandiose plans to expand the store – the same store he is currently locked out of – by 40,000 square feet and bring it to U.S. standards, like how they’ve done with the Cable Beach store, he claims.
Customers at the Cable Beach location do not share Mr Finlayson’s glowing opinion of the store.
Also, the company is launching an “aggressive” $300,000 marketing campaign in an effort to generate $120 million in sales by the end of the current fiscal period. But the people in charge of the campaign are rumoured to know little about marketing.
“They have announced $1,000 giveaways at all their locations. That is an unsustainable promotion with the possibilty of very litle return on their marketing investment,” says one expert in marketing.
In other news, there is speculation that the Lyford Cay location was also set to close, with the store in the process of being forced out of the location. Finlayson denies there is any bad blood between the company and the Lyford Cay landlords.
Still, it is understood that those landlords are involved with the construction of a new fresh-market development in that same area. The new market is expected to be well received, acting as the first-of-its-kind healthy food store option in the country.
