S Foods opens with new retail business model

After overcoming some setbacks, S Foods, the new boutique supermarket and eatery in the heart of the New Kingston business district, is open, offering shoppers a mixed grocery, café and fast food service complete with veranda seating.

S Foods owner, businessman Christopher Issa, is also incorporating more food offerings into the operations of his S Hotels located in Kingston and Montego Bay.

Among the competitive advantages of S Foods, located next door the Kingston hotel property, Issa pointed out during a walk-through of the facility this week, is possibly the most parking spaces available at any one establishment anywhere in the city. In addition to the 120-car parking lot, he is counting on a few other features, including having beaten other food and wine sellers with the convenience of a self-checkout counter, to drive traffic, sales and profits.

While profits are an ultimate goal of any business in the long run, the entrepreneur noted during an onsite interview with the Financial Gleaner on Monday, that margins are not necessarily large in the food retail business, and he is also planning to compete on pricing.

“Some customers have commented that the prices are good and we are very pleased with that. We want to offer quality products, convenience and affordable, competitive prices,” Issa remarked.

The entrepreneur, who is new to the food retail industry, is aware that in a low-margin business, competing on prices requires innovative cost-saving strategies and he says he is keeping a keen eye on costs, particularly in the current situation of rising inflation. He was not prepared to say much on the planned cost containment measures, but let on that the pricing strategy being pursued includes sourcing items directly from producers to be able to avoid middlemen mark-ups and to pass on savings directly to shoppers. Issa said work is continuing to ensure a constant flow, especially of the best fresh produce directly from farmers to the store.

At the same time, the business model involves offering a range of good quality niche products that are not available widely.

“Those are usually produced by small-scale producers, who operate at the micro level of business – start-up enterprises and so on. We are encouraging persons with those kinds of products to come and talk to us. We want to be able to give them exposure and a market,” said Issa.

Already, the store has the retro, jazzy, hometown look and feel of the American Trader Joe’s chain of small neighbourhood grocery stores that, by Issa’s admission, S Foods seeks to emulate. Located on the site of the former S Hotel conference centre at the corner of Trafalgar Road and Worthington Avenue, the supermarket is replete with murals and a waste-to-art display by local artists. The interior design has achieved a natural, rustic, corner shop appearance with the heavy use of unpainted lumber and wooden barrels for liquor display. It even sports within the supermarket, a 1993 Land Rover pickup as its fruits stall.

The 10,000 square feet space conversion was spurred by the downturn in the meetings and conferencing market caused by social distancing protocols enforced by the government in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The space accommodated up to 500 persons.

“We don’t know when that market will come back and so we have had to pivot to keep the business going,” Issa explained, noting that it was fortuitous to be able to repurpose the venue in a way that provides employment to S Food’s 40-member staff.

At the same time, the change of use of the large conferencing facility does not mean an exit of Issa’s neighbouring S Hotel from the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions market. A smaller 3,000 square feet tent has been erected closer to the hotel to accommodate smaller group meetings of up to 200 persons. The hotel building also has 1,500 square feet of meeting space, according to Issa.

The COVID-19 restrictions also led to the closure of some restaurants, forcing S Hotel, especially at its Gloucester Avenue location in Montego Bay, to offer more meal options for its guests, who were previously encouraged to support local eateries.

“We are now more of an all-inclusive hotel with additional lunch and dinner offerings because our guests had nowhere to go,” Issa said.

Meanwhile, at the Kingston location, S Foods boutique supermarket, bakery and its outdoor food truck, that serves lunch, opened on March 7, having missed a planned end of January start up by mere weeks. Its fast food drive-thru, which is expected to feature mainly chicken meals, and which should have opened for Christmas 2021, is still to be opened. Continuing global supply chain disruptions are being blamed in part for the delays, as some equipment being imported for various aspects of the business have encountered extended shipping delays.

Issa is hopeful that once those supply hiccups have been ironed out, the drive-thru will be operational, adding a new feature to the venture. The sourcing of food inputs for the drive-thru operation is not a source of concern from the businessman, who pointed out that reliable supplies of chicken meat and other requirements have already been secured for the supermarket and lunch food truck aspects of the business.

huntley.medley@gleanerjm.com