Sections of the Fogarty’s Department Store building have been put up for rent and the gift shop and jewellery store once housed on its ground floor were relocated to the second storey of the building.
The ground floor and the third floor of the building have been advertised for rent by the management of company. The ground floor still houses the Rose Bud Café, a stationery shop and a supermarket. The third floor houses a furniture and electronic department.
When Stabroek News visited the store yesterday, the gift shop and the jewellery store were moved to the second storey, which houses a clothing store. The cafeteria and supermarket were still functioning.
Stabroek News made efforts to contact management of Fogarty’s on the details of the planned rental but was told that no one authorised to speak on behalf of the
company was at the local office at the time. Stabroek News also made efforts to contact the new CEO of the company, Hussein Haniff, but was told that he was unavailable. Other efforts to reach Glen Khan, Chairman of the Laparkan Group of Companies, which counts William Fogarty Limited among its holdings, were also futile.
Last year, the management of the store had announced that while the Water Street building was sold, it was leased back as part of a financial strategy, and the company’s operations would not be affected.
“What we did was sell the Fogarty’s building and lease it back…. It’s [Fogarty’s] staying in the same building, it’s expanding in the same building but it doesn’t own the building,” Khan had said.
He also said that Fogarty’s businesses deemed most profitable, such as its financial services, garment sales and cafeteria will still remain in the building. “What we will have here is what we need…. In a lot of cases, the challenge has always been to modernise and stock Fogarty’s to its core level. That needs to be done and that is why we came up with a solution that we would change the arrangement as we go forward,” he said, adding that none of the company’s 135 employees would be out of a job.
