I went to buy envelopes at Bruna yesterday and was told the store will be closing, in March. The remaining inventory will be shipped to Curacao to the main office, and for further purchases of envelopes and office supplies I will have to go elsewhere.
The group’s neighboring toy store, cosmetics and vision outlets will remain active.
I guess retail is struggling.
But some are doing well.
We were told on January 20th, that SYGNUS acquired a significant interest in Aruba Wine and Dine, AWD, a chain of existing restaurants in Aruba.
The release revealed that Aruba Wine & Dine, entered into a strategic alliance with Sygnus, a Jamaican-based regional investment group, through its private equity fund, Sygnus Deneb Investments.
Bottom line, a significant shareholding interest of AWD was picked up by investors because “Sygnus recognizes Aruba as a stable economy with a strong hospitality industry and Aruba Wine & Dine, being a significant player in the industry with 9 restaurants, 1 piano bar and a catering business, represents an attractive investment opportunity.”
That’s something to be proud of. Because as you remember it all started with the Plaza Café.
That same Jamaican-based business entity has been collecting commercial interests in Curacao and Aruba, including the Guardian Group Holding, they are now in a majority ownership position in FATUM, they also picked up OMNI, the Van den Tweel Supermarkets and our favorite, Ling & Sons Super Center in Aruba, where they made a considerable investment, and improvement.
Their latest accomplishment is the chain of 11 AWD outlets.
And my friends think that there may be more Curacao and Aruba businesses, e.g. Radio Shack maybe or probably.
I went to the Sygnus website, it states Sygnus operates with a lean and clean business model that does not replicate traditional financial institutions.
Good news: Kevin Slangen, remains Managing Director of AWD, and he already runs a pretty tight ship.
The Curaçao Financial Group N.V. (CFG) helped put the deal together, I bet many other Aruba businesses are now knocking on their door, in search of their own international alliances and access to capital.
Aruba Wine & Dine – https://arubawineanddine.com/
The Curacao Financial Group – https://www.cfgvalue.com/
Sygnus Group –https://sygnusgroup.com/
