local news

Shopwise going strong...
...proves to be weathering supermarket storm

Following investigations carried out last week by MaltaToday, facts have surfaced which reveal that last week’s report on the supermarket industry contained information that was factually incorrect as regards the Shopwise supermarket.

Last week we had reported that Shopwise in Qormi was in the process of liquidating its business and that its development in Naxxar has been temporarily frozen due to a cash flow crisis within the company.

Following an inquiry into the matter, both these facts were found to have been erroneously reported.

In terms of the alleged liquidation of Shopwise, it has been positively determined that no such process is underway, nor is such an exercise foreseeable at any point in the future.

In fact, further investigations carried out by this newspaper reveal that suppliers to the sector hold Shopwise in a high regard and that the supermarket is undoubtedly one the best in settling bills in a timely fashion.

It also emerges that the Naxxar development has, in fact been temporarily halted – but not for want of funds, but because the developers are awaiting permits from the Planning Authority for certain alterations – the need of which had cropped up during excavation works. Works on the site are expected to be resumed by next month.

Speaking to MaltaToday, the supermarket’s management explained that the detrimental hype created by the April shut down of the Supermaster store has now grown out of hand and that the speculation regarding the state of business in the supermarket sector has been blown out of proportion - leading to a derogatory perception of the state of affairs within the sector.

The supermarket hype had begun back in mid-April, when employees of Mriehel’s Supermaster staged a highly-publicised sit-in protest for their wages. Supermaster had cited both a slow-down in sales and stiff sectoral competition as the primary factors in the shut-down.

MaltaToday regrets any inconvenience caused to the management of Shopwise as a result of last week’s report.