COURTS BARBADOS is keeping employment “level” and there are no plans for mass retrenchment, says managing director Trisha Tannis of the business trading as Unicomer (Barbados).
Speaking to the DAILY NATION yesterday after the launch of the Samsung Shop In Shop (SIS) experience in the Bridgetown Superstore, Tannis, however, said they did not have a large number of vacancies.
“There are no mass retrenchment exercises [planned]. There will always be lay-offs but no mass retrenchment. We do have a few [vacancies] although nothing too dramatic and they have, for the most part, been filled,” she said.
Tannis also spoke on how the company was doing shopping-wise, saying people were still buying.
“People are cautious but they are shopping. Courts’ strategy is to keep moving forward and to encourage our customers to think positively and shop with confidence,” she said.
Tannis said they helped this process with their payment protection coverage policies that could be enacted in cases of burglary, hospitalisation and even death.
Even so, she said Courts, and the entire industry, was currently experiencing dips in their sales figures and while this was unsatisfactory, it was understandable and Courts was surviving “relatively well”.
Tannis also encouraged media houses to exercise caution in how they reported the current economic situation, saying there was too much negativity in the news.
“The issues are well established; what we need now is hope. We really can’t stand still and do nothing. We do need more positive messages to be sent; we need the money to circulate,” she said.
The Samsung SIS experience included a new layout for the Samsung line of products, which included tablets, smartphones, laptops, digital cameras and covers, with the highlights being the Galaxy S5 smartphone and the Galaxy Note 3 tablet and Gear smartwatch.
Also speaking was Michelle Alvarez, project manager of the SIS project in the Caribbean and Latin America, who said they brought the brand here as they recognised Barbadians were avid mobile technology users. (CA)
