More than half of the Maritimes small businesses They say they have considered closing permanently this year, according to research from a small business insurance company.
This consideration has been largely driven by the increase fuel costssaid Mariano Neiman, COO of Zensurance.
According to a recent survey, 75 per cent of small businesses in the Maritimes say rising gas prices have negatively affected their businesses, well above the national average of 58 per cent.
For companies like NovaXpress, fuel is “non-negotiable.”
“Fuel is really the lifeblood of our business,” Pieter de Man, operations manager at NovaXpress, a transportation and courier company, told Global News.
“A marginal increase in fuel has a huge impact on our overall results.”
He said much of that fuel cost had to be offloaded to customers.
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“We used to quote our prices as a total price to our customers,” he said. “We can no longer do that in a manageable way. We need to be completely transparent on the cost of fuel as a baseline.”
De Man said there is a fuel charge of between 37 and 88 percent, depending on the request. He said for a quote of $1,000, that would mean the customer would have to pay a fuel charge of $370 to $880.
“We expect to almost double our fuel cost and that’s even with the bulk fuel price we have as a business,” he said. “Unfortunately, we have to pass that fuel cost on to our customers.”
But de Man said what many customers across companies don’t realize is the behind-the-scenes logistics that drive the products.
“Going to grocery stores as a consumer, I see prices going up day after day and a lot of that is due to the logistical cost and the center of that logistical cost is the cost of fuel,” he said.
But while some businesses have been especially hard hit, continued tourism growth in Nova Scotia could help attract more customers.
“Affordability is on the minds of many Canadians, but Halifax remains a very affordable destination compared to other urban centers in Canada,” Sarah Reeves, director of communications for Discover Halifax, told Global News.
Reeves said many tourists who visit Nova Scotia come from other Maritime provinces. Although he said that most of them travel by car, this has not prevented record tourism numbers from being reached this year.
“Many visitors plan their vacations well in advance. They know where they’re going, how they’re going to get there, where they’re staying, and they factor in a lot of those types of costs,” he said.
For De Man, he said margins right now are “very tight,” but he plans to continue providing services to keep the economy moving.
– With files from David Murdock, Global News
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