One of the country’s largest supermarket chains, Frankie, has not laid off any of its 700-plus workforce during the coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic.

Frankies Company Secretary, Temukisa Masoe, told the Samoa Observer in an interview that the global pandemic and the S.O.E. that followed did not affect their operations and they did not suffer any losses.

“Because we’re mainly on the retail side, hence why we’re never experiencing any losses,” she said. “But for the employees, no one was laid off.”

However, the state of emergency (S.O.E.) declared in March resulted in restrictions on the use of public transport, making it difficult for some of their staff to get to work.

Consequently, Mrs. Masoe said the affected workers only worked limited days in a week due to the lack of transportation. 

But their financial operations did not really feel the impact of the global pandemic and the locally-declared S.O.E. and staff also went out of their way to protect their jobs.

“Exports are operating normally, and marketing around the nation is the same,” she added. “Everyone has been so honest with their jobs ever since the lockdown which is good because they now value their jobs as a majority of them are breadwinners for their families.”

The retail business currently has 10 supermarkets, one hardware, farms and plantations, a poultry farm, one wholesale and three warehouses.