Courts spending $80m to expand, upgrade stores

Dionne Rose, Business Reporter

Courts Jamaica, the island's largest furniture and appliance retailer, is spending over $80 million to upgrade its stores in the towns of Falmouth and Savanna-la-Mar as well as its headquarters in Cross Roads in Kingston.

Hayden Singh, the chief executive officer of Courts Jamaica told Wednesday Business the refurbishing is keeping with Courts' periodic renewing of its stores "to enhance the customers' shopping experience, making it more pleasurable and at the same time providing them with products of value and service".

The most expensive of the projects, a spend of $40 million, is taking place in Savanna-la-Mar, the capital of the island's westernmost parish of Westmoreland where 3,000 square feet are being added to the existing store to bring it to 12,000 square feet.

"It is not only the cost of the expansion," Singh said, explaining the cost of the project.

"It is (also) the cost of fitting it out and bringing it up to standard, changing out all the equipment, putting in new lighting and building room sets," he said.

Permission granted

In the north coast town of Falmouth, Trelawny, Courts has received the go-ahead from the heritage authorities to refurbish and expand the old Georgian building that houses its store. Courts plans to spend $30 million on this project, which will include adding 3,000 square feet to the store.

"We have now got the Jamaica National Heritage Trust guidelines to expand," Singh said.

Although not specifically part of the wider programme, the refurbishing by Courts of its Falmouth store is likely to be seen by Trelawny Parish Council officials as important and positive development, in the face of their drive to redevelop the historic town of mostly Georgian buildings.

A new cruise ship port, which will accommodate the world's largest passenger liner, is now being completed in the town by the Port Authority of Jamaica and its partner on the project Caribbean Cruise Lines.

However, other work, such as diverting traffic from the town centre, relocating the market, refurbishing buildings and creating pedestrian malls, is yet to start.

This portion of the Falmouth redevelopment is to be led by the Urban Development Corporation.

At its 25,000 square foot Kingston headquarters, Courts is nearing completion of a $12 million project to replace tiles, install efficient lighting and improve displays.

"Cross Roads has always been one of our premier shopping centres and therefore we thought that it would be a good idea (to do the upgrade), as we do with all our stores," Singh said.

Courts Jamaica, with 29 stores across the island, including three in Kingston, is the largest and most visible of the island's home furnishing stores. It operates a vibrant hire-purchase business.

But in recent years, Courts, although it remains the market leader, has faced competition from a bevy of small, insurgent players who can more easily cut deals to tie down sales.

With assets of $8 billion, Courts Jamaica, though listed on the Kingston exchange, was formerly part of a publicly traded but family-controlled United Kingdom business that went bankrupt.

The Jamaica and other Caribbean operations, which were solvent, were acquired in 2006 by Simans, a Central America retailing family.

Singh said shift ownership had hardly changed the front-of-store character of the Courts operation.

"All my executives and me who were here with the previous owners are still here, none has left," he said.

He added: "So the character of the store has not changed at the front-end of the business. Where it has changed is at the back-end of the business, where our parent company ... now has a lot of buying power."

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com