For months, Bowen and Bowen has been experiencing supply shortages – first it was Crystal water that you couldn't find to buy, then Belikin beer, then, recently, even their flagship product, Coca Cola was scarce. All those shortages and supply breakdowns fuelled a storm of speculation – culminating in the recent rumour that Belize's Biggest Bottler, a virtual monopoly was on the verge of collapse. Well, those rumors have reached the head office, and Bowen and Bowen today issued an exceptionally rare press release-slash-personal statement, which takes a very defensive tone.
It comes from CEO and President Michael Bowen, who succeeded his father Barry at the helm of the company. The statement opens by saying, quote,
"In…recent weeks there have been many rumours about Bowen & Bowen's status. These rumours range from speculative to outrageous, and we unequivocally state that these rumours are unfounded."
But the fact is that there has been a shortage of product and Bowen says this is due to "upgrading…computer systems and production lines."
The first to get it was the bottling line at the Beer factory, which was shut down for two weeks to complete the installation of major key components such as a pasteurizer, and, new conveyors.
But it seems the most problematic upgrade has been a change in the company's business management software. They've upgraded to an advanced system called E-R-P which Bowen says made things, quote, "get worse before they get better." Bowen says that they implemented it on June first leading to a quote, "long, frustrating, and tiresome" week. He says the system held the company back on distribution, production, and sales – or, as we might say, everything! But they remain committed to it, and he says that things have continued to improve and promises, quote, "From here forward you will continue to see improvements."
But that seems to be easier said than done. When we checked today there was no half liter bottles of sprite, or coke, and no small bottles of Coke and Red Fanta, and no Lighthouse or Guiness at the Belize City Distribution Center on Slaughterhouse Road.
Moreover, workers are complaining that the company has not been paying their overtime and commissions. It got so bad last week Saturday that truck drivers at the center went on a strike refusing to go on their distribution rounds until money owing to them was deposited in their accounts. After four hours they were talked out of it by a manager who promised to straighten things out by Monday. According to our reports, those overtime payments are still not sorted.
We tried multiple times to get a comment from Bowen and Bowen but at newstime they did not respond to e-mail requests for an interview. We say e-mail requests because we could not get through on the telephone lines which just rang off the hook.
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