City Pharmacy tells Government: Pay us

By PETER ESILA
CITY Pharmacy Limited (CPL) chief executive officer Navin Raju has joined the chorus of disquiet over the Government’s reluctance so far to help businesses affected by the Jan 10 civil unrest.
“The Government should deliver on the promises it made to us (business community),” he said.
“They promised to pay K500 to all the staff (members) affected by the Jan 10 incident. We are waiting for the final print to see what will happen.”
He said CPL continued to employ workers from its three shops affected – Stop & Shop North Waigani, Rainbow and Harbour City.
He said there was a confusion among staff members initially over whether workers deployed to other shops would get paid.
“Obviously we kept everyone employed, but used them in other areas of the business just so that we can keep them employed,” he said.
“But we are still waiting for the Government. It is not sustainable anymore. We will have to make a decision whether to keep them or let them go.”
He said the decision not to re-open the Harbour City SNS was because the rent was too high and not sustainable.
“Every year our rents keep going up (but) our turnover doesn’t go up because our economy is down,” he said.
“Sometimes we have to make these hard decisions. So we are not going to open it.”
He said the CPL’s results for 2023 released to the market was good, but it would be hard to say the same for this year.
“We lost three shops. That is a lot of revenue.”
Damage to CPL’s business as a result of the Jan 10 civil unrest is estimated to be K84.7 million.