Located in Taro Town, Choiseul Province – some two hours flight from Honiara – is William Sualau, entrepreneur and owner of Baeto Enterprises. William supplies small retail stores in Taro Town and the surrounding rural communities with general household goods, manufactured food items, fuel and electrical items brought in by ship from Honiara.
Not long before the start of the pandemic, William had secured a bank loan to purchase 1,000 cartons of SolTuna, sustainably fished canned tuna produced in the Solomons. His plan was to sell the tuna to customers in Bougainville Island, but lockdowns and disruptions meant that by the time the tuna arrived, buyers were restricted from travelling to his location to collect it. Two years later, William is selling the tuna at no profit just to help with payments on the loan.
With a new interest payment every month, the business needed to improve revenue in any way it could. To achieve this, William resolved to focus on the second strand of his business and increase the amount of copra he was purchasing from local farmers for on-sale to the Honiara market.
Seeing Business Link Pacific’s Adaptation Grant advertised in the Solomon Star, he immediately saw an opportunity. After discussing this with his accountant, they formed a plan to apply for the grant to support the purchase of copra. Apart from market gardening, copra is an important source of income in rural communities.
Baeto Enterprises have collection points in small villages where farmers bring their dried copra and Baeto collects it in bulk when they have guaranteed transportation to Honiara. Getting guaranteed transportation is a story in itself, with many copra suppliers relying on the same backloading of ships which bring supplies to the remote islands.
William reports an upswing in business having used BLP’s grant as seed money to buy copra. A batch of 300 bags can generate a profit of SI$30,000, if only he can get it on a ship. There’s a significant lag of as much as three or four months between collecting the copra and its arrival in Honiara, which brings us to William’s grand scheme.
In future, William plans to buy a boat and motor to improve the efficiency of ferrying bags to ships, charging other copra suppliers for use of his boat and casual labour. And if he could improve his storage capacity, he could buy more copra, which means a larger shed.
William is clearly happy with the funding provided by BLP’s Adaptation Grant. It has enabled him to get back on his feet and generate income to pay down his loan and to start dreaming again of ways to grow Baeto Enterprises.
The Finance Facility enables access to capital for stabilisation, recovery and growth of viable but financially distressed businesses in the Pacific Islands due to the impact of COVID-19 on the regional economy.
The Facility opened applications to Business Adaptation Grants across eight Pacific Island countries in January and June 2021. Adaptation Grants have benefitted over 200 businesses to date, and Business Link Pacific is currently processing a similar number of grants to be disbursed before the end of the year.
To further support recovery and growth, Business Link Pacific is negotiating key partnerships with Financial Institutions to offer concessionary lending to small businesses in the region and will soon make information available on accessing those products. The Finance Facility also offers curated information about financial products for businesses on its free online tool, the Finance Finder; visit today to find out what is available to your business right now.