Chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Margaritaville Caribbean Group Ian Dear is reporting that subsidiary Margaritaville (Turks) Limited is preparing for a December restart of operations.

He outlined that management is now “in planning sessions to trigger the hiring of team members and ordering of the supply chain to achieve the reopening date announced by Carnival Corporation and the Turks and Caicos Government”.

On October 13, Turks and Caicos Premier Washington Misick along with the CEO of Carnival Corporation Arnold Donald announced that the cruise line will be returning to Grand Turk by early December 2021.

Dear told the Jamaica Observer‘s Sunday Finance that the company anticipates having to invest approximately US$750,000 to achieve the proper restart of the operations between staffing, supplies and upgrading of existing facilities.

Margaritaville Turks operates through the food and beverages and gift shop segments with its main clientele being cruise passengers visiting the islands. The company was founded on July 15, 2004 and is headquartered in Providenciales, Grand Turk.

Margaritaville Turks has been shut down completely for almost two years. Dear said that the company now must fully ramp up the supply of goods to support the operation.

As a result of travel restrictions around the globe, including restrictions to enter Turks and Caicos, Margaritaville Turk’s operations were suspended at the end of March 2020.

During the suspension, a number of cost-saving initiatives were introduced, including temporary staff layoffs. Some of these layoffs were eventually terminated through redundancy due to the prolonged travel restrictions.

With the company’s restart now in sight, Dear said, “We are extremely bullish on the Turks and Caicos Islands, and particular Grand Turk, as to the exciting future of cruising to that beautiful island. We are very excited to work closely with the Turks and Caicos Government along with Carnival Corporation in providing a second-to-none experience in the Caribbean and the world.”

Premier Misick announced that Carnival will be investing US$24 million in the Grand Turk Cruise Center and that this will open up additional sales opportunities with this expansion which was in the planning stages prior to the novel coronavirus pandemic, but will now be realised.

In response to the pandemic, Margaritaville Turks took significant measures to preserve cash and control costs, including deferral of planned non-essential capital expenditure and negotiated extended credit terms with suppliers.

“We anticipate that the company will be well on its way to recovery in the latter six months of the financial year, which ends in May 2022. We anticipate that the ramp-up of cruise arrivals will be very strong once restarted,” the group chairman stated.