Mother's goes to school - Patty company takes on cafeterias
Published:Sunday | January 9, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Mother's Enterprise Limited, the operator of the Mother's chain of fast-food restaurants, has taken over the management of three school canteens in a move that is in keeping with the company's current aggressive expansion and diversification drive geared at boosting revenue.
Managing director Carlysle Hudson told Sunday Business that the company only recently invested $10 million to renovate the cafeteria at Jamaica College (JC) in St Andrew, an investment which suggests that the firm is in it for the long haul.
Hudson said JC was not the first school location the firm had gone into, having since September last year taken over the cafeterias of The Queen's School, also in St Andrew, and at Portsmouth High in Portmore, St Catherine, a year before.
"We see that there is a need in the schools for our products and the service that we offer," the managing director said, explaining the step outside its traditional expansion model.
"(Based on) the products, speed of service, and the prices that we offer, we think it was a great advantage for them to go with an institution such as Mother's," Hudson said of the schools' decision to grant his company the franchise.
But the firm had to beat other contenders for the business, noted JC board chairman, R. Danny Williams, who said Mother's had to compete for the contract to run the cafeteria.
Williams said he was pleased with the start-up in a short time.
"Seventeen days ago this did not exist. All we had was an empty hall," he pointed out,
"Here we are today. It is a fantastic job of work!" said Williams.
"You would have to have seen this place. It really wasn't in this class at all, and he has brought it up to First-World standards," Williams said of the upgrading done by Hudson.
He noted that the move to have a firm like Mother's in place was part of a programme
Mother's, in taking over the cafeteria, has a potential 1,800 customers from the school's population.
Hudson said the company would provide the regular cooked lunches, but would also add snacks and pastries to the menu, including Mother's patty products.
He added that the investment had created 25 jobs at the location.
The Mother's official said there are plans to further penetrate the schools market, but he declined to say where next the company was headed.
"We are planning to do more school cafeterias, (and) we are in discussion with a number of other schools."
School cafeterias represent a potentially huge business with the Ministry of Education disclosing that there are some 1,014 public schools, including universities and colleges, as well as 464 independent schools, with a total population of 672,995 students.
But it is not just the schools-lunch business that Hudson's firm is eyeing.
"We are looking at the whole lunch business to see whether there is an opportunity to develop, but once there is a business opportunity, we will invest," he said.