KINGSTON, Jamaica – President of the Jamaica Gasoline Retailers Association (JGRA), Trevor Heaven, says that he is “gravely concerned” about the number of service stations island wide that now face closure.

According to Heaven there are at least nine retailers, currently, that have either failed, and now out of the business, or are on the brink of failure due to financial challenges.

He attributed the downfall to:

High operational costs – people, utilities, maintenance, security, and so on.

Handling-losses and shrinkage, due to temperature changes.

Reduced gross income (low margins and reduced throughput) and, increased bank and credit card charges.

Heaven said that the conditions were exacerbated by demands of some marketing companies that set unrealistic performance targets “leading to undue pressure on already strained dealerships that inevitably buckle under the effort to meet these targets”.

He added that JGRA will host a meeting of all gasoline retailers on Wednesday, August 22 at its Kings Plaza office on Constant Spring Road in Kingston, starting at 10.00am.

 “The JGRA will seek a mandate from its membership for the necessary actions to be taken in support of its members,” said Heaven.

He also called on the mining ministry, the ministry of Trade and Commerce, financial institutions and oil marketing companies to support the JGRA in securing the gasoline retail trade.