Exclusive interview with Siana Bistoquet, chief executive of the Seychelles Trading Company (STC) |04 March 2023
Siana Bistoquet
‘If nothing happens globally to impact negatively on the economy, STC customers will early next year see a positive change in the prices of commodities’
On March 1, the Seychelles Trading Company (STC) celebrated its 15th anniversary. The state-owned importer, which also stores and distributes essential ad basic foods, operates a retail presence in the domestic market as well as market the duty-free sector. Its aim is to guarantee that these commodities are readily available on the local market throughout the year. Seychelles NATION caught up with its chief executive, Siana Bistoquet, who was appointed nearly a year and a half ago, to see how the company is faring and whether it has attained its main objective.
Seychelles NATION: Mrs Bistoquet is there a particular reason in 2023 to celebrate the existence of STC, where we can actually say that it has attained its objective of ensuring the availability of affordable basic commodities on the market?
Siana Bistoquet: If there has ever been a time when STC’s objective and mandate have been more important and relevant, it would be now. As the world faces a crisis brought about by the war in Ukraine, where vessels were threatening to stop travelling to certain destinations or had stopped altogether, and with Covid-19 disrupting flight and cargo ships travelling to Seychelles, without STC, the population would have felt the impact of these crisis with a shortage of a lot of commodities. But because STC has a stock that lasts between four and six months, we have always been able to sustain the country, and ensure the availability of commodities at a time when we did not have planes or boats travelling to Seychelles.
STC also managed to stabilize the prices of commodities despite an increase in fuel costs led by the war in Ukraine. The company was able to prevent a rise in prices, which was the case in many other countries. It was only our Category 1 products that actually saw a hike in prices because we were making huge losses on these items. And with an increase in freight costs and dollar prices, we did not have a choice because the losses would have been too high and at the end of the day, the government would have been the one to foot the bill as it would have had to subsidize STC. Other than the Category 1 items, instead of increasing the prices, STC actually reduced prices on 69 products.
Seychelles NATION: How was this met by the public?
Siana Bistoquet: It went well, and according to our survey, there is a huge difference from where we were previously to where we are now. When we reduced our cost, we forced other retailers to bring down their costs, for example whole chicken was selling on average at R60 in the market and now it is R55, on average. Prices on the market have stabilized because we have stabilized the prices, we have forced other merchants to bring down their prices and some have even gone lower than ours.
Seychelles NATION: STC’s mandate is to guarantee the availability of basic commodities in the country and yet people would argue that it sells commodities that are not basic, such as frozen pizzas, which can easily be sourced by other importers. Why is STC therefore spending money on these commodities?
Siana Bistoquet: STC puts only 15 percent on commodities as retail mark up. We have around 630 employees. Our utilities, mainly electricity, amounts to over two million rupees monthly. The 15 percent mark up on basic commodities will never be sufficient to cover our expenses, to run our warehouses, or even the large transport fleet we operate to deliver our products around Mahé. Our fuel cost is high. What are we going to do with the hypermarket if we stop importing items like pizza, washing up liquid etc? We have to sell these items to get our revenues.
Seychelles NATION: But is there a sustainable way to run STC then?
Siana Bistoquet: We are making profit, but the problem is we cannot share the profit to the public at the moment because all our equipment are faulty, which is costing us an enormous amount of money monthly. Once we complete our new cold store facility, which will be fully installed with solar panels, we will be producing a maximum amount of electricity, and this will reduce our expenses.
Presently, we are paying over R600,000 monthly in electricity for the fruit and vegetable division and the meat division. These two facilities will close down once we complete our new cold storage facility, which hopefully will be by October/November this year.
We expect to reduce the electricity cost by half, thus making a saving of R300,000 monthly, and that is over R3 million saving per year.
Once this is done, the quality of our products will be superior to what we are selling today because our facility will be way better. Today our products get spoiled as soon as they are put into these old storage facilities as they do not have the right temperature required to keep them fresh. Fixing is no longer an option as they are too old.
So, firstly, we will save over R3 million in electricity annually, secondly there will be no maintenance which is extremely costly, and thirdly there will be a huge improvement in the quality of our products because it will be in a place with the right temperature, dry and cool.
Seychelles NATION: You have mentioned that you are making a profit that is going into maintenance and huge expenses. So, when will the customers reap the benefits?
Siana Bistoquet: When the cold store project is completed, if nothing happens globally to impact negatively on the economy, early next year, STC customers will see a positive change in the prices of commodities. Like I said we are making profit, but we cannot share it, pass it on to the consumers because we need that money to upgrade our facilities. Once we complete the facility, we will be able to share that profit to the public. However, the public should take note that despite prices, which have doubled or tripled globally, prices in Seychelles have remained stable in 2022. In fact, I would state that performance was very good last year.
Commodities under Category 1 went up because we were losing too much on these products. But do consider that they were of better quality.
Seychelles NATION: You have mentioned quality of products. However, some would argue that not all items are of good quality, especially your potatoes, which is a major issue at the moment. What is happening and where is STC sourcing its products?
Siana Bistoquet: The potatoes we are selling are the same that can be found in other outlets in the country, which people are saying are of good quality. In fact I can confirm that these outlets actually buy from us and sell it at a higher cost, but because they have better storage facility their products last longer and retain its freshness. We have lost a lot of business on our fruits and vegetables because by the time they reach the hypermarket, two or three days later, they are spoiled but they fare better and remain fresh at other outlets because their storage facility is good.
Seychelles NATION: So are you satisfied with the countries from which you are sourcing the products?
Siana Bistoquet: We are sourcing from various countries such as India, Pakistan, Egypt, and even from Europe. Last month we were selling potatoes imported from Belgium.
Seychelles NATION: But are you satisfied with the prices or you can do better, at more affordable prices?
Siana Bistoquet: I have another way of looking at it. If you ask for cheaper, you will complain of the quality, because you will be getting the lowest grade of products. We order Grade A products from our markets, and we even pay SGS to certify our quality before it leaves the country to ensure that was the quality we ordered. So we put a lot of emphasis on quality because we do not want to put fake products on the markets.
Seychelles NATION: Late last year STC revealed that it had spent R2 million to stock chicken produced by local farmers. What is the present situation? Have you been able to find a solution?
Siana Bistoquet: They are being cut into cubes, packed and sold on the local market. It is working well for now as we have a new sales and marketing team overseeing this. But we need to keep track of the stock as government imposed restrictions on the importation of chicken in December last year. I guess once we reach 50 tonnes of chicken we will alert them so that we can remove the restriction to allow for importation so as to prevent a shortage.
Seychelles NATION: You have been the chief executive for nearly a year and a half. What would you say has been your biggest achievement, what have been the results?
Siana Bistoquet: The most important one is that we have been able to stabilize commodity prices on the market. Because without STC, prices would have been way higher. We have carried out a lot of changes, which has not been met in a positive light by some staff but we gave them a year to assimilate the change we wanted to carry out in the company, while at the same time bringing in new qualified people who are able to run these departments in an efficient way.
What we need now is for the staff to adapt to the new way of doing things because one of our aims this year is to cut down on wastage. Today you can have a staff using a vehicle to go to the same office five times during a day while he or she could have done that trip once and sorted out all the issues in one go.
Last year, we had to get rid of many items, stored for years, even as far back as 15 years ago, which were never sold and were just kept there in storage.
Demurrage was also an issue. We were paying a high cost on containers being kept in the yard as the company took a long time to unload them. We have been able to cut down cost on this as well.
Pilferage was also another major issue, which we have been able to address. There was a division where we discovered about a million-rupee loss due to pilferage. We changed the way of doing things and this has now gone down to zero.
Cutting down on wastage has made the company more efficient.
And there are ways where we are also improving the company, to increase efficiency, for example, upgrading our transport fleet, which is in a deplorable state at the moment, leading us to spend a huge amount of money on spares and maintenance. We bought two freezer trucks last year and we expect five new ones in 2023.
Seychelles NATION: STC also has a building material warehouse, and seeing that there are many other businesses involved with this, why is STC still investing in it?
Siana Bistoquet: It is a necessity. Similar to other commodities, having this business also help to stabilize the prices of construction in the country. What you will notice if you go there is that you will not find basins, hoses, drills, screws, etc but basic building materials that a person needs when building a house, such as roofing sheets, wood, plywood, gutter. If we stop selling those, the prices will hike out there. If there is one place where we have really brought down the cost is on building materials, where we have forced others to go lower, and some are now even lower than us. We do not keep it because we want to make money but rather to stabilize the prices.
Seychelles NATION: What is your vision for STC?
Siana Bistoquet: I want to ensure that all its infrastructure are upgraded and in very good state. Secondly, train our staff so they can better deliver the type of services we need as well as review our labour force. So instead of having 630 employees like is the case now, we can easily run this company with about 400, which will also greatly reduce our running cost. And STC’s biggest vision is to bring down the cost of living. I am very hopeful about 2024.
Seychelles NATION: What is the message to your staff now that STC celebrates 15 years?
Siana Bistoquet: STC will continue to invest in them so that in return they can deliver the best service in the country and to our customers. They are presently getting a better salary, as we have worked on a new salary structure for them, so they are being well remunerated. We will also ensure they get the best training because as it stands right now, STC can compete with big private companies, when it comes to its labour force.
Interview conducted by Patsy Canaya
Photo by Joena Meme