Wayne Chen, chief executive officer of Super Plus Food Stores. - File

Super Plus Food Stores boss Wayne Chen said he would not refuse a good offer for the islandwide family-owned supermarket chain, but says he has not put the company up for sale.

In an interview with the Financial Gleaner, Chen said there was an increasing trend for larger international retailers to buy into smaller countries, and that one of his goals in restructuring the company was to make it so efficient as to attract interest from such companies.

But asked outright whether that meant SuperPlus was hunting a buyer, Chen dismissed it, but did not discount it as a future possibility.

Right-sizing the company

"Not at all," he told the Financial Gleaner. "Not in the short term. We are right-sizing the company now," he added.

Super Plus is closing down stores it considers unprofitable. It has already locked down four, and will close a fifth operation in Montego Bay this year, cutting the chain to 25 stores.

Chen says his goal is to make SuperPlus so locally competitive that it discourages new market entry, and so efficient that, if it becomes a takeover target, potential suitors would offer up a good price.

Chen said he was not prepared to sell, at least not in the next two to three years, but again he added a rider: "It depends on the offer."

Super Plus, the largest grocery chain in size, has admitted to vulnerability to rivals in the competitive grocery trade.

Its main competitors are the Progressive Group, owned by a consortium of private grocers, and Hi-Lo Food Stores run by conglomerate GraceKennedy Limited.

But: "We came back," he said.

"You always have a MegaMart effect but this is always the case," he added, referring to the business that his Liguanea store lost when Azan opened up his store at Waterloo Road in Kingston.

With now 26 supermarkets, a few wholesales and six Total service operations, Chen said he would pump $1 billion over the next calendar year into the business.

He admits to making losses on his core business, grocery, but says the company is looking to grow income from consumer goods phone cards and handsets, and services provided by its pharmacies, cambios and remittance windows.

susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com