Big Mac closes two outlets

MCDONALD'S JAMAICA has trimmed two of its six Kingston-based restaurants in what its Three Rivers Management said yesterday was a "consolidation" of operations.

All employees will however retain their jobs.

Equipment from the New Kingston and King Street operations are secured at Three Rivers warehouses, while workers have been redeployed to the four remaining restaurants in Kingston, and to Portmore.

"None of the workers have lost their jobs or pay. They are deployed and working," marketing manager Christine Neves Duncan said Monday.

The equipment comes out of storage in mid-2002 for use in a full service outlet scheduled to open in Cross Roads, a new outlet in planning for the past 12-months.

Three Rivers' official reason for the closures was the lack of parking facilities and customer dissatisfaction that the outlets did not carry a play area. However, its outlet at Bay West Centre in Montego Bay faces similar constraints, but is doing well.

Mrs. Duncan said their assessment shows that Montego Bay has a different, more varied customer base, some of whom do not care about having drive-thru service.

The marketing manager insisted yesterday that the closed stores had been "performing", side-stepping questions on whether the restaurants had been profitable.

She said however that without the problems McDonald's could have tripled business. McDonald's has operated in Jamaica for the past six years and employs about 500 young people islandwide.

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