Dear Editor – I write to express my concern at the attitude of the staffs of Solomon Islands Tobacco Limited who for the past months have threatened us the market vendors.
Since February this year staffs of Solomon Islands Tobacco Company Limited (SITCO) have been visiting us at the Kukum market purposely to preach one message- “do not sell Bro cigarette”.
They came almost every day and each time they told us that we must not sell Bro cigarette.
They allege that the company that produced Bro cigarettes, Solomon Sun Company, are not a genuine company that will soon shut down due to production of poor quality products and non-payment of taxes etc.
I very much doubted these reasons they tell us because if true, the rightful authorities in the country would have already addressed these issues.
These staffs even tried to offer their products at discount prices, prices that are still no match from the profit we make from selling Bro cigarette.
When we continued to sell Bro cigarette, these staffs got very angry us. They even threatened to burn our Bro cigarette stocks at the market.
My goodness! I know that Solomon Sun Company is a new and local company and yet they never tell us to stop selling Pall Mall.
I recall the statement of the General Manager of SITCO published in the Solomon Star sometime in December last year where he said that they have nothing against Solomon Sun Company.
Are these actions by your staffs really what you meant Mr GM?
I find the actions of these staffs very unfair, immature, and unprofessional indeed. Is this the best business tactic your big company can come up with?
I even saw these staffs harassing other market vendors and various shop owners in Honiara to date.
I have been a market vendor at the Kukum market for more than 10 years.
My only objective all these times is to make profit.
What I gathered from SITCO’s actions is that given the current situation, SITCO could not be more competitive in the market with their product.
Solomon Sun Company only started business at the beginning of this year and already they have four different types of products in the market.
May I suggest to SITCO to concentrate more on innovation (if you can).
In the meantime, as a market vendor I have the right to sell any legal product I want and so do the market vendors who have encountered all that I have raised.
SITCO, please stop going around town harassing the innocent citizens and business people.
L. Kerry
Kukum Market
Honiara
