a result of its decision last week to stop importing and distributing certain lines of foods.

The company, which will no longer be the Island's largest distributor as a result of the restructuring, announced on Friday that it would stop importing and distributing of certain lines of foods.

But it may not tell staff until closer to the end of the month how many will be made redundant.

BGA president Mr. Robert Skelley said frozen food and food service product lines are being sold to competitors Bermuda Import and Export Ltd., Butterfield and Vallis and Dunkley's Dairy.

The lines originated from the 1992 acquisition of Purvis Distributors and the 1991 purchase of Weldon.

BGA will stop selling activities relating to those products on October 31, and will sell off the remaining stocks of goods in those lines.

Mr. Skelley said the consolidation will prepare the company for further expansion in the future.

The streamlining will remove an estimated 18 to 20 percent of sales, according to Mr. Skelley.

Mr. Skelley said: "We want to be absolutely sure that we are performing as well as we can in the core business, and that is ongoing sales training and development of the sales people. We're strengthening our already solid relationships with the manufacturers.

"Once this transition has taken place with Food service and frozen, we have feelers out and we have contacts by manufacturers whose lines we don't carry today.

"They have indicated to us that as a result of streamlining the business, which we're in the midst of doing right now, that they might consider the BGA as the exclusive agents for their lines.'' Mr. Skelley said some of the streamlining may be classed as removing potential conflicts for the three or four new prospective companies.

After the transfer of the product lines the company would no longer be the largest wholesaler.

"I think Butterfield and Vallis' volume might be greater than ours after this and Winter and BGA might be very close,'' he said.