New STC depot offers ‘affordable’ homeware and building materials |30 September 2014

The Seychelles Trading Company (STC) has opened a new homeware and building materials depot designed to meet the needs of cost-conscious customers.

The depot, located on Bois de Rose Avenue, was officially opened on Friday by STC’s chief executive Veronique Laporte in the presence of Designated Minister Vincent Meriton, Minister for Land Use and Housing Christian Lionnet, chairman of the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry Marco Francis, partners, management and staff of STC.

According to Ms Laporte, STC has delivered on a promise – a promise that has been raised by its shareholder the government who has requested STC to establish a retail outlet that will provide the country and people of Seychelles with a variety o construction materials at reasonable prices and quality.

Acknowledging that the task has been a challenge and not easy, Ms Laporte said her company has been able to set up the depot within a short time frame.
“Today I stand proud to be able to deliver on this promise,” she said, adding that more products are coming in as from this week.

Construction materials like masonite, wood, steel bars, welded mesh are to be found outside the depot while home improvements products and accessories like  floor tiles, sanitary wares, garden tools, doors, carpets, screws, nails, ladders, spades, just to name some, are stored inside the depot.

National paint company Penlac has its own corner also inside the depot.
Ms Laporte has invited the private sector to come and see how they can work with STC with the aim of reducing the cost of construction in the country.
“There are  some who are already working with us but we are calling for more of them to come on board so we can work together and see how we can reduce the cost of building Seychelles,” Ms Laporte said.

As for stock reliability whereby the company has to ensure no run-out situation, Ms Laporte said that STC already has new materials coming in. But as it is a new venture, it has to assess the demand to be able to confirm the next consignment. This, she said, applies for everything that STC imports.

To that effect, Ms Laporte also highlighted that STC is operating in a business environment as all other businesses. There are constraints both locally and internationally where many things are outside their control but she said that the STC team has done all that is needed in regard to what it can control.

“But if tomorrow for example there is a scarcity of foreign exchange, we will have to wait until it’s available; if tomorrow even if we have already paid for the merchandise but the ship does not arrive in port as scheduled, there will be delays. On our side we are doing all we can to mitigate all these risks,” said the CEO.

In the event that a lack of foreign exchange emerges, Ms Laporte said STC will have to prioritise its imports and bring into the country items that are most needed.

On the issue of hoarding where a company can buy materials from STC only to re-sell at more exorbitant prices, Ms Laporte said the STC retail outlet is mainly for individuals and small contractors. As for larger ones, they will not be allowed to buy large containers of goods from STC.

As for Praslin and La Digue, Ms Laporte  said STC is setting up a showroom there. Based on demand STC will bring in construction materials from Mahé but there may be some differences in prices after adding the logistic costs for such a service.

Ms Laporte has called on those who have boats and are interested to bring in materials from Mahé to Praslin and La Digue, to come work with STC in such a venture.

The STC homeware and building materials depot has its own warehouse built by Vijay Construction. The warehouse also contains offices for staff.
STC expects to advertise its prices later on and is planning to put a fair profit margin on its products.