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Falkland Islands: Weekly Penguin News Update

Kevin and Leone Reynolds at Stanley Dairy

Headlines: Stolen property tracked to Australia, Combined police efforts land former dairy managers in court; Takings soar at the new-look Chandlery; Time change.

Stolen property tracked to Australia

Combined police efforts land former dairy managers in court

On Friday April 3, 2009, the former managers of Stanley Dairy, Kevin and Leone Reynolds, appeared before a Fremantle Court in Western Australia charged with importing stolen goods.

The Reynolds arrived in the Falklands in early 2006 to take up the management of the dairy and had extensive plans to develop the business.

The couple left the Islands in January of this year when at the end of a £650,000 investment in the dairy, the Development Corporation (FIDC) which own the business, came to the conclusion that a detailed business plan put forward by the Reynolds contained too many risks to justify further funding.

The Falkland Islands Development Corporation (FIDC) own Stanley Dairy.

The charges against the Reynolds have arisen as a result of a report to the Falkland Islands police on February 24, 2009, from FIDC, that items to the value of approximately £38,000 may have been stolen from the dairy. An investigation was led by Detective Constable Gary Webb of the Royal Falkland Islands Police in liaison with the Interpol Unit at the Australian Federal Police as well as the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service.

Detective Constable Jane Hannan of the Fremantle Detectives Office, said that a homogeniser valued at £28,000 and an egg incubator (£300) were among the items recovered from a sea container shipped from the Falklands, holding the personal belongings of the Reynolds.

DC Hannan explained that on March 24, the Fremantle Detectives Office executed a search warrant under the provisions of the Criminal Investigation Act at ‘Luckens Fumigation Services’ in North Fremantle where the container was stored and as a result of the search, a significant amount of dairy equipment and property was located and seized for further enquiries. FIDC had identified the property as belonging to the dairy.

Mr and Mrs Reynolds are due to appear again before Fremantle Court on Friday May 1, 2009 when they are to face further charges regarding breaches of Australian quarantine regulations.

Superintendent Paul Elliott said: ‘This is a fine example of determined investigative work by DC Webb and joined-up working between police forces. We remain in close liaison with our colleagues in Western Australia and have arranged for the prosecution of Mr and Mrs Reynolds to be dealt with entirely under the laws of Western Australia, so that the question of their return to the Falklands for an expensive court case will not arise.”

David Waugh, General Manager of FIDC, said the Falkland Islands Police had responded immediately and effectively to their initial concerns and the investigation, which had required international cooperation between police forces, appeared to have quickly resulted in the apprehension of suspects and the confiscation of the missing items. He added: “FIDC look forward to a speedy resolution of the case and the early return of the equipment.”

Takings soar at the new-look Chandlery

STANLEY’S first purpose-built supermarket officially opened for business this week.

Boasting the Falklands’ first automatic sliding doors, under floor heating and a car park that guarantees your trolley won’t run away from you, customers have been flocking to the new-look Seafish Chandlery this week.

Manager, Neville Hayward reported on Thursday morning that takings at the four tills had increased by a massive 200% over the first two days of trading.

Having spent many hours packing purchases into bags and entertaining customers in his inimitable manner, Mr Hayward said he had shed tears of joy to see so many smiling people leave the shop with their well priced goods.

The supermarket was officially opened on Monday evening by former Speaker of the House, Tim Blake, on behalf of Councillor Mike Rendell, who was pre vented by weather from travelling to Stanley for the occasion. The opening followed Seafish’s Annual General Meeting which was held in the old shop and was essentially what general manager, Hamish Wylie referred to as a “family affair” for the company’s shareholders who number some 260 and those involved in its construction.

Mr Blake unveiled a small plaque and cut a red ribbon which had been placed over the entrance doors to symbolically represent the official opening. James Smith and Nick Hadden, two of the company’s more senior shareholders and staunch supporters of the business, made their way around to the entrance and became the first two people to pass through the doors of the newly opened shop.

During the opening ceremony Mr Blake recalled that it was at a board meeting in 1999 that a business plan for the Chandlery was first presented by the then newly-appointed General Manager. Mr Wylie had observed that on one afternoon that week there had not been a single customer walk into the shop.

The situation has clearly improved over the last ten years and the new shop is the latest and by far the largest investment Seafish has made to date in its retail business.

The business has seen a steady growth in sales with average increases of 30% year on year from 2002 – 2006.

It was becoming more and more difficult to sustain such growth within the existing shop and with the demise of Beauchene and the Co-op in the face of increasing competition from the West Store, it was clear that the business had to match the Falkland Islands Company, or suffer the same fate.

Mr Wylie said it was difficult to estimate how successful the shop would be and getting stocking levels right in the first six-eight months would be difficult, as it took two-three months to see any changes in re-ordering take effect. He commented: “Seafish has put all its available resources into ensuring that the shop should be adequately stocked to meet expected demand and has contingency funding available to it from shareholders should it prove necessary in the event of greater than expected sales.” Continued on page 3.

Time change

Government clocks will be put back one hour, reverting to local mean time, at 2am on Sunday April 19, 2009.

Public Holiday: Tuesday April 21 is the Queen’s Birthday