By GENEA NOEL

Freeport News Reporter

genea@nasguard.com

Reports circulated over the weekend that some employees of the Home Centre and Freeport Concrete went unpaid last week. Contacted by The Freeport News on Monday morning, Ray Simpson, president and chief executive officer Ltd., said that although some payments were late, all staff have been fully paid.

Simpson, who runs the Freeport Concrete Company Ltd., the parent company of the Home Centre explained yesterday to The Freeport News that like most of the companies on the island, they continue to be in "survival mode" in dealing with the economic downturn.

He said that the employees of the Home Centre,, who are paid every two weeks were indeed paid last week with the payroll letter being received by the bank no later than Thursday past.

However, Simpson said that employees of Freeport Concrete should have been paid at the beginning of last week but were not paid until the end of the week.

"It had to do with me making sure that we had the cash to make the payroll. Everyone is being paid but the construction business is down," he said.

"That is our primary business. We sell concrete. We sell blocks and building material and we are a publicly traded company. My shareholders were advised in January there were some losses last year and we are still not out of the neck of the woods."

Simpson said despite the challenges, the company is doing its best to keep everyone employed.

"Our sales in the concrete division have been down because there is very little demand for ready mix concrete," he said.

"We have to move the cash around in the company to cover both the Home Centre and the concrete division as well as cover all other bills that have to be paid at the beginning of the week."

Simpson said that sometimes when the payroll goes to the bank, it does on occasion, take two or three days for payment to reach all of the employees accounts. They do however receive their wages, Simpson said.

Last March the company laid off 21 employees and Simpson, at the time said that business has been among many that has suffered directly from depressing economic conditions.

"Recently in our industry, there has been news of closures of major retail stores. Although we have held our own over the past two years, the present economic conditions continue to worsen," Simpson said in a press release.

"As indicated by our financial reports over the past two years, we have significantly reduced our monthly operating expenses. However, at this point in time we have done as much as possible to cut our general expenses and therefore we now need to look to other areas of the business to reduce costs."

He said the company had to take "aggressive steps" to ensure its future sustainability for its shareholders, employees and customers. Among those steps was laying off several staff members and offering early retirement to one other.