FIFTEEN years after selling their beloved LB’s Supermarket at the corner of Eastern Main Road and Cane Farm Road, Arouca, and moving to Diego Martin, where they opened Westbees Supermarket, the Bachew family has returned to their hometown.
And they’ve done so in a big way.
Saturday marked the grand opening of Westbees Supermarket, Arouca.
“It feels good to be back home and to make acquaintances again with our customers,” said Westbees managing director and chief executive officer Brian Bachew, on Thursday, as his wife and three sons hustled around putting the finishing touches on the supermarket in time for the “soft” launch the day after.
“When we sold here, two things I missed the most- the staff and the customers,” he added.
The Bachew’s history in the supermarket business spans three generations.
Brian Bachew’s parents Lena and Balkaran ran a small parlour out of their home in Arouca in the 1960’s.
In 1978, they purchased one lot of land for $7,000 along the Eastern Main Road, Arouca, and built LB’s supermarket, named after the couple.
Brian Bachew joined the family business at age 16 and years later bought several surrounding properties and expanded the store.
He said at the time, the community of Cane Farm was just being developed.
Brian Bachew wed Lalla and they had two sons, Brad and Biondi, and a daughter, Briana.
Brad, now 28, recalled running up and down the aisles of LB’s at age ten, helping staff pack the shelves of the snack lane and pricing goods.
He is now director of operations at Westbees Arouca while Biondi is a director of Westbees Development Company.
LB’s sold to Massy Stores
It was in July 2004 that the Bachews sold the LB’s brand to Massy Stores and leased their property to Massy for a 15-year period.
The supermarket was subsequently renamed Diskomart.
Brian Bachew said the family packed up shop and moved out of Arouca due to the crime situation.
“Crime was a major issue at that point in time. Kidnapping was rampant,” he said, adding that several of his friends in the supermarket business were kidnapped around that time.
After leaving Arouca, Brian and his wife retired from the supermarket business for a few years.
The Bachews had invested in several properties in West Trinidad.
“I knew that I had property in Diego Martin where we could have opened a supermarket. We were actually building that to rent it to Massy, but when I saw my grocery bill and the amount of money it was costing me to buy food in the West, compared to what my grocery bill was when I was in the East, we decided to get back into the supermarket business,” he said.
West Bees Supermarket in Diego Martin was opened in 2008.
“This is a wonderful industry. You don’t make a tonne-load of money from selling onion and aloo, but every little thing adds up,” he said.
“We have a passion for this. I was born and grew up in the supermarket. My mother and father had a shop when I was born and I was at the counter when they were selling. And when I started at LB’s it was all about a family serving families. We always had a close relationship with all the families that surrounded us,” he said.
The return to Arouca
Massy’s 15-year lease arrangement with Westbees Development Ltd came to an end earlier this year, but they did not renew it, said Brian Bachew.
“Under the Diskomart brand they did not do much of a good job and as a result the value of our real estate went down, because it did not have the level of appeal. So we had to make the decision as to how to address that,” he explained.
“West Bees in Diego Martin was doing extremely well, so we said let’s transfer the brand here and deliver the same level of quality of products we have come to be known for there. The same price that you pay in Diego Martin, is the same price you pay here,” he stated.
Diskomart Arouca officially closed its doors to the public on June 16, moving all its operations to its Tunapuna branch.
Using a mix of Venezuelan migrant labour and local labour, renovations to the Arouca property began in August.
The store has been remodelled, with wider aisles, fresh flooring and shelving as well as new signs.
For months many curious residents of the area wondered whether they would see the return of LB’s. “The LB’s brands was sold to Massy, that’s why when we came back here this year we couldn’t return as LB’s,” Brad Bachew explained. He said many people also wondered why the store was not called East Bees.
“As a family, we sat at the table to discuss what we would call here. We thought maybe Eastbees, because we’re in the East. But Westbees is our brand and we are building the brand. The Westbees brand is also a strong brand,” he asserted.
He said when the store advertised job vacancies in early October, it received a whopping 3,000 applications.
“My brother Biondi and I were the ones who went through every one of those applications and replied to as many as we could. We now have 70 employees. The majority of our team are from within the area. Some are living within walking distance of the store,” he said. Asked if the family is eyeing other locations, he responded:
“Definitely! We’re keeping our eyes on the East/West corridor. This is our first move to a second location.”
