CPL survives ‘devastating’ fire to bring Waigani Central shop back to life

By GYNNIE KERO
THE past few years have been “devastating” for the City Pharmacy Ltd (CPL) Group after a fire gutted its supermarket at Waigani in 2015, managing director Mahesh Patel says.
On top of that, Patel said the group lost K28 million worth of inventory back-up stock in a fire at its Gerehu warehouse last year.
“After the fire last year at Gerehu, we were not sure if we would be able to open this (Stop N Shop Waigani Central),” he said.
“But God willing, we are able to open it (next week).”
Patel said that for the redevelopment of the Stop N Shop Waigani Central Supermarket, the group had to raise capital because the pro-perty’s insurer was in liquidation.
Speaking during a tour of the supermarket yesterday, he said: “We did go to the market to get additional capital, which is for redevelopment of this store.
“For this project alone, we budgeted around K15 million.
Despite the tough conditions, Patel said CPL maintained all its staff “because we are talking about livelihood of Papua New Guineans”.
He said the group was still supporting the local community and local farmers by buying their fruits and vegetables – which make up 70 per cent of their produce section.