Stock not a worry for Brian Bell Group

By PETER ESILA
THE Brian Bell Group is not shipping supplies to Rabaul due to the lockdown but availability of stocks is not a concern, according to chief executive officer Cameron Mackellar.
Mackellar said the company had experienced some supply chain issues, particularly out of China in the early part of the year.
“We have been reasonably fortunate that the Covid-19 state of emergency (SOE) has still allowed most shipping channel lines to be maintained as well as the movement of trucks, providing that they operate within the guidelines of the SOE,” he said.
Mackellar said distribution of supplies throughout the country was operational.
“The only shipments that have been recently impacted is to East New Britain because of the state of emergency situation there,” he said. “Shipments have stopped in the last week, but we are reasonably stocked in our Kokopo locations across all our divisions.
“Traffic has been significantly impacted, there is no movement in Kokopo at the moment.
“We hope that in the next week or so, that might free up a little, in particular, given that there was news in the last couple of days that the second positive case had actually been reported negative, so hopefully that will mean movement and things like shipping may open up in Kokopo in the next week or so.”
Mackellar said like all businesses, the Brian Bell Group had certainly been impacted by Covid-19.
“However, we have a very resilient business, a committed team and good leadership in place to steer us through any challenge,” he said.
“When the SOE restrictions came into place some weeks ago, we were able to maintain operations across all divisions.”