Tastee adding two stores, new export markets
Published:Friday | November 5, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Dionne Rose, Business Reporter
Patty company Tastee is branching out across Jamaica, with new stores planned for two parishes, and further into the Caribbean into new export markets for its meat-filled pastry, starting with Grenada.
Tastee is making a J$43-million investment in its 14th self-managed local store in Linstead, St Catherine, which will open for business by early December, says Administrative Manager Eilean MacKay. A 15th store is also being planned for Morant Bay in St Thomas next year, from rented premises that needed only to be outfitted, said MacKay, who declined to divulge the opening date.
"We are slowly moving from franchising to doing our own thing," she said.
Tastee has 11 franchises and eight distributors, but is shifting away from that model, citing the need for quality control.
"It is easier to manage and ensure that the standards and procedures are adhered to," the administrative manager said, adding that Tastee was not as a result currently looking for new franchise partners in Jamaica.
Tastee already has two stores in St Catherine. The third location was chosen because of its growing commerce.
"Linstead has high volume and has a lot of traffic," said MacKay. The store is expected to create 40-45 new jobs.
Tastee's reach into the Caribbean already extends to five markets, with footholds in the Cayman Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Now its patties are headed for Grenada, Barbados, The Bahamas, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Guyana.
"(In) Grenada, we have identified the distributor; it is just for him to identify a location," she said, adding that the company has been approached by interested parties.
"We are exploring the other areas," she said.
Tastee's push to grow markets outside Jamaica comes in the midst of a recession whose grip on Jamaica has held for more than two years.
MacKay said the company, established 44 years ago by Vincent Chang and his wife, was holding its own despite declining jobs, wages and, with them, consumer spending power.
MacKay, while declining to give sales figures, said profits were still up.
"Overall, I wouldn't say we are suffering," she said.
"We are doing better simply because our philosophy is to provide a good product at a reasonable price - $80 for a patty - so we haven't really suffered from the recession."