Hyacinth Chen, Super Plus Food Stores pioneer, passes at 89
Published:Saturday | January 8, 2022 | 12:35 PM- Judana Murphy/Gleaner Writer
Hyacinth Gloria Chen, the matriarch of the family-owned chain of supermarkets, Super Plus Food Stores, has died. She was 89.
She was also the mother of billionaire businessman Michael Lee-Chin and chairman of the Southern Regional Health Authority, Wayne Chen, who is also the CEO of the Super Plus Food Store chain.
“Our beloved mom, grandma, great-grandma, loyal friend and mentor, passed away this morning, at home surrounded by people she loved, and who loved her back. May she rest in eternal peace,” Wayne Chen wrote in a tweet.
Hyacinth Chen, along with her husband, Vincent, started the family retail business in Port Antonio, Portland in 1964. The business blossomed into the Super Plus supermarket empire.
By 2003, the group engaged eight of their nine children in the business, at which point it was described as Jamaica's largest retailer, measured by gross revenues. At its peak, Super Plus had 34 stores across Jamaica and some 1,500 employees, with revenues of $13 billion per annum.
As supermarket consortium Progressive Grocers and superstores, such as MegaMart began to expand, Super Plus sold off most of its supermarket and wholesale outlets.
In 2008, son Michael Lee-Chin established the Hyacinth Chen School of Nursing at Northern Caribbean University's main campus in Manchester, named in her honour.
Chen had received an offer at 18 years, when Lee-Chin was a baby to study nursing in England, but declined because she could not bear to leave her son.
In a Gleaner article entitled, 'A School for Mom', Lee-Chin credited his mother for lighting the fire of ambition in him and said his greatest joy was seeing the school named for her.
"I thank my son Michael for generously making this venture possible. I am forever proud of his kind giving spirit to give back to the community and country," Chen had said at the opening ceremony.
The Hyacinth Gloria Chen Crystal Court at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada is also named in her honour.
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