Small businesses reel from power outages: customer losses and financial strains

Malta has been grappling with a series of power outages in the past week, leaving its localities in the dark and causing significant disruptions for residents and businesses alike.  

The sudden and unpredictable blackouts have taken a toll on these enterprises, making it difficult for them to serve their customers effectively. As the lights go out, shop owners find themselves struggling to explain the situation to frustrated patrons, leading to a decline in foot traffic and further challenges for businesses.  

Moreover, the reliance on electricity to power essential equipment and facilitate transactions has left many establishments financially strained, forcing some to consider temporary closures 

Speaking to MaltaToday, Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) CEO Abigail Mamo said there have been disruptions across the board, and different businesses have faced different challenges.  

Service operators faced operational disruptions as they grappled with various challenges, hindering their ability to function normally. 

Some of the businesses had to halt their operations, leaving them with no other option but to send customers away.  

“When the power cut issue persisted for one, two, three days, tourists’ level of understanding lowered, and they started to submit bad reviews on websites like Trip Advisor and booking.com,” Mamo said. “From a wider perspective, this could also be translated as a wider bad review on Malta as a touristic destination.” 

Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) President Abigail Mamo

Other businesses had to send staff home, with the disruption leaving them no other option but to shutter their door and stop operating. “Obviously they still had to pay wages, duplicating the operators’ losses.” 

“For certain businesses whose customers consists mostly of tourists, this is the peak season, and losses at this stage will mean repercussions later on in the year,” she said.  

The retail sector was also hard-hit, with power surges causing damage to appliances and electronic equipment.  

According to the chamber CEO, the problems faced by this sector was two-fold: “You had customers coming back with damaged appliances, thinking they were still covered by a warranty, when they weren’t, leading to increased frustration and disputes with shop staff.” 

“You then had damage to equipment used by the shops, for example, ACs and computers, which went up to sums of €500 and €700,” Mamo said.  

She also pointed out that businesses are constantly transitioning towards a digital infrastructure, and without a steady electrical supply, they will continue to face hurdles.  

Mamo said that among the worst hit were private education providers, who could not operate in the heat, and had no other option but to postpone classes.  

Among these were child-care centres, who could not control young children without proper circulation and functioning fridges.  

“Imagine trying to care for children younger than three, in this heat, without a proper AC. You just can’t,” she said. “We had carers telling us that they had no other option but to phone the parents and tell them to come and pick up their children. It was very frustrating.” 

Chamber says ‘unacceptable’ situation cannot go on  

Abigail Mamo said when outages were starting to be reported, the chamber immediately reached out to its members to quantify and analyse the overall effect they will have.  

“This is a failure in the country’s basic infrastructure. We cannot have a monopoly like Enemalta, without having a proper fail safe for such interruptions,” she said.  

She called the situation unacceptable, stating if Enemalta continues to have a monopoly over the nation’s electricity supply, it must have backups for such instances. “It should have a Plan B, or Plan C through batteries or generators. It must have a backup plan.” 

She said the chamber will be holdings meetings with Enemalta next week.  

Government has promised to compensate those affected by the power cuts, with Prime Minister Robert Abela saying he is discussing with the relevant authorities. No details have yet been given.