Lights go back on at Jumbo Limassol

Electricity to the Jumbo store in Limassol has been restored after the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) saw about one quarter of the €800,000 bill paid.

Power was cut off on Thursday due to a dispute between the EAC and Bank of Cyprus, the administrator for now bankrupt Orphanides, leaving the store to run on a generator.

Jumbo Limassol is currently housed in the premises of a former Orphanides supermarket in Kato Polemidia, leased from the Bank of Cyprus after the retailer went under three years ago.

Although the store has been operating since September 2014, the EAC would not transfer the new lease until some €800,000 accumulated during Orphanides’ time was paid off.

Thus, Jumbo opened the new store without actually registering with the power company as the new operator of the premises, meaning the EAC continued to claim electricity bills from the Bank of Cyprus, which the lender then passed on to Jumbo.

On Saturday, the EAC confirmed €200,000 had been paid to them and therefore, power had been restored.

“We have nothing to do with Jumbo. Our client is Orphanides and as it is bankrupt, its administrator is the Bank of Cyprus who we received the money from,” EAC spokeswoman Christina Papadopoulou told the Cyprus Mail.

Following discussions, it was agreed the remaining amount will be paid in monthly instalments.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.