Fri | Mar 29, 2024

Updated: SVL developing network of special stores

Published:Friday | June 17, 2022 | 12:07 AM
Xesus Johnston, CEO of Prime Sports Jamaica Limited, a member of the SVL Group.
Xesus Johnston, CEO of Prime Sports Jamaica Limited, a member of the SVL Group.

Xesus Johnston, CEO of Prime Sports Jamaica Limited, a member of the SVL Group.
Xesus Johnston, CEO of Prime Sports Jamaica Limited, a member of the SVL Group.
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Lottery and gaming company Supreme Ventures Limited has set up a flagship store at Twin Gates Plaza in Kingston, through which the group will offer multiple services sold by its various businesses. The store has been operating for about a month in...

Lottery and gaming company Supreme Ventures Limited has set up a flagship store at Twin Gates Plaza in Kingston, through which the group will offer multiple services sold by its various businesses.

The store has been operating for about a month in the space formerly vacated by CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank during the pandemic, but will be officially launched today, Friday.

It’s the first of a network of about five special-service stores that CEO of Prime Sports Jamaica Xesus Johnston says the company intends to build out. Prime Sports is SVL Group’s main gaming subsidiary.

“It will offer more than just the gaming products,” said Johnston.

“There’s the customer-facing piece in gaming, but we also have walk-in and sit-down spaces for McKayla, where people can get loans,” Johnston says. McKayla is the company’s microlending business.

SVL Group spent upwards of $80 million to renovate the former bank branch which was closed in January 2021. The location has proven ideal, said Johnston, citing the amenities of the former bank branch.

“We want four more like that. We’re looking for at least four more bank branches that we can convert, so that we can offer these services,” Johnson said, but declined to disclose the town’s targeted.

The new Twin Gates centre has 5,000 square feet of floor space with a mezzanine level for offices. The new flagship store will also become SVL’s large-prize payment centre. The former prize centre at the R. Danny Williams Building in New Kingston is now occupied by a retailer and will continue to offer SVL products, he said.

Twin Gates is the second new store being opened in under six months, bringing the network of convenience centres to 10 nationwide, Johnston said.

neville.graham@gleanerjm.com

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to remove incorrect references to plans by SVL to provide agent banking services.