S Hotel pivots from conference market to food retail

Kingston-based Spanish Court Hotel, now rebranded as S Hotel, has made a pandemic-induced pivot from the meetings and conference business to the retail food market under the S Foods brand.

The New Kingston hotel’s 10,000 square feet conference facility, located at the corner of Trafalgar Road and Worthington Avenue in the Kingston, is undergoing a makeover with the intention of cashing in on Christmas sales for its bakery and fast food drive-thru, part of owner Christopher Issa’s maiden voyage into what he is describing as a boutique supermarket business.

The drive-thru for bakery products and prepared foods should be open within a week while the supermarket operation is expected to be ready for business at the end of January. Issa said he is not contemplating more than one S Food location at this time.

“We will be selling a lot of the basic products but we would like the shopping to be unique experience focused on quality and speed of service,” he told the Financial Gleaner in an interview, pointing to what is meant to be the key area of market differentiation for the business.

S Foods is located a stone’s throw from upmarket rival John R. Wong Supermarket, which is owned by the Loshusan family, and whose holdings span various grocery businesses, including Sovereign at Liguanea, Kingston.

Issa said his supermarket’s business model is akin to the American chain Trader Joe’s, which is known for its deliberately selected range of items, the quality and uniqueness of the selections and a declared focus on affordable prices.

“Part of it was the fact that the hospitality business in Kingston has really suffered greatly from the COVID-19 pandemic. There might be a couple hotels still closed some 18 months after the country’s borders reopened (following the shutdown last year),” said Issa.

“Not being sure when conferencing will return, we took the decision to diversity and to convert the conference centre into a supermarket,” he said.

The businessman, who also owns and operates S Hotel in Montego Bay, declined to divulge the level of investment being ploughed into building out the supermarket and fast food outlet. Issa did not indicate any further business changes for either facility, noting that while the Montego Bay property, which sits in a resort area, was running at 70 per cent occupancy, the Kingston hotel was just about 35 per cent full.

He also appeared undaunted by his inexperience in the food retail sector or by the much talked-about supply chain disruptions that have resulted in the shortage of some imported manufactured goods, unusually high shipping costs and extended delays in receiving shipments from overseas.

“It’s early for us to say, but obviously, when you take a decision roughly 12 months ago to go down this road, by the time you get equipment and equip the store, the supply chain issues would have kind of compounded themselves more recently. But we are hoping that they will be sorted out in the coming months and that there will be a supply of items that we can stock the store with,” the Issa said optimistically.

He is joining calls from others in the hospitality sector for Kingston hotels to be made to benefit from COVID-19 protocols similar to those that apply to properties located along the so-called ‘resilient corridor’ encompassing properties along the south and north coasts.

Guests staying at those hotels are allowed into the country with a negative COVID-19 test; whereas travellers from overseas destined for Kingston hotels, and who are intending to move around the city or elsewhere in the country, are required, in addition to the negative PCR tests, to be vaccinated and to quarantine for 10 to 14 days, Issa noted.

“Not everybody in the travelling public might want to get vaccinated, and quarantine for up to 14 days if they are not vaccinated. It is not practical for them if they are coming for, say, a week with their family,” the hotelier noted.

“We have good bookings for the winter season in Montego Bay but we have heard people say that their family members don’t want to come to Kingston for Christmas because they want to quarantine or be vaccinated,” he said.

S Foods is expected to employ 45 workers in what is planned as a customer-focused business.

huntley.medley@gleanerjm.com