Hi-Lo, Super Plus co-exist
Published:Friday | September 10, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Avia Collinder, Business Writer
Hi-Lo Food Stores' new supermarket in the Port-more Pines commercial and shopping complex puts it in territory long occupied by rival Super Plus, but both parties are shrugging off the decision on locality as significant.
Hi-Lo, which is owned by conglomerate GraceKennedy, has secured a 15-year lease from Portmore Pines, a complex owned by Ransford White which has become a central point for shopping and other services for Portmore's more than 200,000 population.
Hi-Lo is setting up an operation that is, visually, twice the size of Super Plus and occupies a building of its own in the complex.
The buildings housing the two operations are separated only by parking spaces for shoppers.
Super Plus CEO Wayne Chen said he was unperturbed by the new market entrant - a company he sold out two other Super Plus stores to in 2009 - and that he has no plans either to move or sell out the store.
"The community is large enough for both of us," Chen told the Financial Gleaner, but he hinted that Super Plus might upgrade the store at Portmore ahead of Hi-Lo's expected late November opening.
"We will always be striving to improve ourselves," he said.
Hi-Lo is investing US$1 million (J$86m) in outfitting and stocking the new store, which is expected to provide 50 new jobs.
General manager of the chain, Andrea Coy, too, said there was enough business to go around.
"The community is big enough to support both of us. That side of Portmore is underserved," Coy said.
"Competition is good; both locations will benefit. The location will become a hub for business activity."
Coy added that the choice of a lease, instead of purchase, was a well-considered move. Hi-Lo has previously said the policy will remain, that it is in the business of supermarkets, not real estate; though in one case - Barbican - the chain has found itself paying rent to owners of a rival and neighbouring operation, Loshusan Supermarket.
"We are trying to mitigate risks where possible," Coy said, adding that the 15-year lease at Portmore Pines was renewable.
The new supermarket is located near a cluster of gated residences that have sprung up in Portmore in the last five years.
According to Coy, the new store will model a one-stop shop operation with many new services, in addition to those currently offered in other store locations.
She declined comment on what the new offerings would be, but GraceKennedy has been delivering in-store money-transfer, bill-payment and banking services from heavily trafficked businesses.
The Hi-Lo store in Manor Park, Kingston, for example, has a corner set aside for First Global Bank, though this has been in place for more than a year.
The supermarket chain is present in seven parishes, with five stores in Kingston, one in Port Maria, three in Westmoreland, two in Montego Bay, and one each in Ocho Rios, Mandeville and Spanish Town.