By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A major Freeport retailer/wholesaler is aiming to "fully reopen" its building materials division tomorrow, as it pledged to rebound from Hurricane Dorian "stronger than ever before".

John Doherty, Kellys (Freeport's) general manager, told Tribune Business that the company had made significant "strides" in rebuilding inventories and clearing out premises that had been devastated by the category five storm's flooding just three weeks before.

Estimating that the company's building materials division was "about 80 percent fully recovered", Mr Doherty said its housewares-focused retail store had progressed less due to the five-and-a-half feet of flood water intrusion it suffered.

Suggesting that this business unit may not be fully operational until the New Year, he added that Dorian nevertheless may have created an opportunity for Kelly's (Freeport) to make good on long-held plans to modify and upgrade its retail store.

Mr Doherty also revealed that the company had managed to keep all its 124 staff employed in Dorian's aftermath, with 90 percent of employees present when the immediate post-Dorian damages assessment was conducted.

Emphasisng that the financial cost inflicted by Hurricane Dorian was "not as important" as the resumption of operations, he revealed that 11 trailers had already come in post-storm to enable Kelly's (Freeport) rebuild its inventories following the worst damage sustained by the business in its 54-year history.

"We've made quite a few strides," Mr Doherty told Tribune Business. "We have gotten in quite a bit of new inventory, and all of our external warehouses have been cleaned up and cleaned out to make them available for new stock which we've actively had coming in for a few days now.

"We still have some goods from our pre-Dorian inventory that we have been able to utilise because they were put up higher in anticipation of potential flooding. Proactive thinking allowed us to save stock that we were able to sell as soon as the storm passed, but unfortunately we did not anticipate the flooding to the degree it was."

The Kelly's (Freeport) general manager added that they were able to save around 50 percent of the company's bulk inventory despite sustaining severe flooding damage elsewhere.

"It was serious damage," he revealed. "We lost our entire fleet of vehicles; all the delivery trucks coupled with all the forklifts. We lost the entire fleet. We had five-and-a-half-feet of water in the retail store. Thankfully we have a lot of mezzanine levels in the warehouses, where we were able to put the higher-dollar, fast-moving goods on higher ground.

"You always plan for the worst and hope for the best, but in this case we got a little more of the worst than we anticipated. The most important thing is we have a staff body of 124 of employees. Immediately after, when we came and did the assessment, some 90 percent of the staff were present. The rest were dealing with individual losses.

"We've had everybody that was employed show back up for work, and thankfully we've been able to keep everyone employed and not been forced to lay anyone off. The Kelly family have stood by us, and we've stood by them."

Mr Doherty revealed that Kelly's (Freeport's) immediate post-storm sales had been to the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) and larger contractors for immediate post-Dorian remediation. Now, with inventories rebuilt, he told Tribune Business: "We anticipate being fully open on the building materials and some hardware items on Thursday [tomorrow].

"We're continually adding to the inventory levels every day, building it back up and adding more options for the public. So far we've gotten in about 11 trailers since the storm. Vehicles will be able to use the drive through and load up with supplies they need to start the rebuilding."

Mr Doherty added that the building materials division was "about 80 percent fully recovered" from Dorian, while the retail store's progress was estimated at around 40 percent. "The retail store remains a bit of a challenge," he said.

"We're in the process of taking everything out so we can start to clean, start rebuilding inventories and putting fixtures back in there. We had always planned on doing some renovations and modifications to the store, and this circumstance allows us to execute these plans we'd like to have done during normal operations hours.

"We have an opportunity to redo and repurpose, and bring on board a new retail store once complete. It's about reinventing, repurposing and redesigning what was there bigger and better. That means it may take a little more time to open back up."

Mr Doherty projected that the store's first section would likely be ready "within two months" by November, and suggested the unit would be fully ready come 2020. "We're racing to have something up and running by Christmas," he told Tribune Business, "and working feverishly to achieve that goal.

"We have very ambitious goals, but believe it's best to shoot for the stars and hopefully land somewhere in between."

Revealing that Dorian was the worst storm that Kelly's (Freeport) has encountered in its 54-year history, Mr Doherty said the company was still assessing the damage to its business and the likely recovery costs. While it was "insured to some degree", he revealed it was not fully covered as "destruction like this was something we thought would never happen to this degree".

"In 54 years we've never sustained this type of damage," Mr Doherty told Tribune Business. "Dorian was something that nobody anticipated being as strong, powerful and damaging to all the companies on this island. It was unforeseeable that something of this magnitude could happen to Kelly's and many businesses in this area.

"Kelly's is here to stay, and will help to rebuild the island. We're up to the challenge, and will open back up as the new Kelly's. We're redesigning and coming back stronger than ever. Not many companies have been able to maintain their entire staff."