General Foods to roll out new supermarket by year end
Published:Thursday | September 24, 2015 | 11:50 AM
General Foods to roll out
new store by year end
Avia Collinder
Business Reporter
The structure housing the General Foods Supermarket at Liguanea Plaza is to be demolished, but it will be replaced with a building twice its size on adjoining property.
After two years, a two-storey building that will house the supermarket is now taking shape and is expected to be completed and opened by year end, according to project manager Garry Chuck. The
new store will have twice
the shopping, display and storage space of the existing supermarket.
The old space, which spans 14,000 square feet, will be converted into parking that will service the expanded grocery operation.
Chuck did not say when the demolition and conversion would occur, nor the investment being made in the overall project.
General Foods is owned by Tony and June Wong. The couple also owns one of Liguanea Plaza's flagship businesses Liguanea Drug & Garden. They are also reported to be part owners of the shopping complex.
Chuck indicated that business at Liguanea was vibrant and that the expansion was the result of demand.
"When you try to open a new place, it's really an improvement in trying to satisfy the needs of the clientele. We have had five years of practising with the local clientele and we are just going to try to give them what they have been wanting," he said.
General Foods entered Kingston in 2010 when it took over the space vacated by Hi-Lo Food Store in Liguanea Plaza. General Foods, up to that point, was a one-store operation located in Ocho Rios, which remains in business at the Ocean Village Shopping Centre in the resort town.
The larger store at Liguanea will include new services, among them a deli and outlets for prepared meals. Otherwise, the supermarket will continue to do what it does now, just on a larger scale.
"Currently, we offer a very wide range of items, and with the extra space we will be able to offer a wider range, as well as to suit the different ethnicities in the area and just to expand on our current platform, really," the project manager said.