Susan Gordon, Business Reporter

Businesswoman Thalia Lyn is hoping to grow her business, Island Grill, by expansion and more efficient reading of customer needs. - File

Local fast-food chain Island Grill is in the medium term looking to add at least three stores per year under an aggressive push towards expansion that has already begun in Montego Bay.

Thalia Lyn, owner of the food company that formalised jerk as convenience food, is now equipping some 3,500 square feet of space leased from Gassan Azan at Catherine Hall, a $35-million investment that will roll out Island Grill's largest and third outlet in the tourism capital.

The new store, co-financed by debt and Island Grill's own revenues, is on a timetable to open in April, the 15th in the chain.

Lyn said the Catherine Hall store - located on the US$20-million commercial complex built by Azan last year, where he has sited his largest of three MegaMart retail stores - was ideal for her fast-food business.

Big draw

MegaMart is expected to be a big draw for thousands of clients to the complex.

General manager at Island Grill, Albert Bailey, said traffic through the area, a mix of residential and commercial developments, is normally heavy because Catherine Hall is one of the entry points to the core of the city.

"It's being developed as a destination and we are expecting that a lot of people will come," said Bailey.

Added Lyn: "It's our first stand- alone and drive-through that we didn't have to retrofit."

The store will provide 50 jobs.

Lyn launched her fast-food business in the 1990s as Chicken Supreme, but the enterprise faltered.

It began to take off when she changed the name to Island Grill, made Jamaican jerk the mainstay of its menu, and jazzed up the interior of her shops in bright Caribbean livery.

Island Grill recently partnered with the Barbadian conglomerate Goddard Enterprises to open a restaurant at Bridgetown's Grantley Adams Airport. They plan other partnerships in the Eastern Caribbean.

The Jamaican operation, however, is entirely Lyn's.

More expensive

The new Catherine Hall outlet will be more expansive than the average-size store, but Lyn said Twin Gates in Kingston remains largest of the 14 Jamaican outlets and is still the flagship store.

The company, as it builds out the MoBay store, is also relocating its existing outlet at Kingston's Norman Manley International Airport to the food court in the newly built departure lounge, at a cost, Bailey said, of $20 million to retrofit and re-equip the store.

"We are aggressively pursuing the build-out right now and it's dependent on the time the airport is finished. If that time frame is held, we may be in by March," he told Wednesday Business.

The outlet in the old terminal will remain operational until then.

Island Grill, which serves more than 70,000 customers a week is looking for double-digit growth this year, and is to enhance its information systems to increase productivity.

"If we know 2.25 customers per minute order festival, we can prepare our food without people having to wait for their food," Lyn said of the efficiency programme.

susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com