Progressive Grocers tweaking grocery chain, adding new supermarket in Negril
Published:Sunday | September 10, 2023 | 12:10 AMKarena Bennett - Business Reporter
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Progressive Grocers of Jamaica Limited is making changes throughout its chain of supermarkets. The consortium, which owns five supermarket brands cooperatively, will be dropping one of the outlets from the Shopper’s Fair chain and replacing it with...
Progressive Grocers of Jamaica Limited is making changes throughout its chain of supermarkets.
The consortium, which owns five supermarket brands cooperatively, will be dropping one of the outlets from the Shopper’s Fair chain and replacing it with a Progressive Foods supermarket by year end.
The company owns the Shoppers Fair, Super Shoppers Fair, Progressive Foods, JR’s Bargain World Food Stores and D & Y Supermarket Wholesale brands, which at last disclosure amounted to around 20 supermarkets.
The affected outlet at Caledonia Road in Mandeville was closed on September 4 to effect the transition.
Progressive Grocers director Bruce Loshusan did not respond to requests for comment on the rationale for the switch.
From observation, however, Progressive Foods seems to carry a wider variety of products, while the goods at the Shopper’s Fair supermarket are typically priced lower than the Progressive Foods outlets.
Separately, Progressive Grocers is awaiting final planning approvals for the development of a supermarket at White Hall in Negril. The details of the project were not disclosed in the filings posted on the National Environment and Planning Agency’s website.
Incorporated in November 1999, Progressive Grocer employs some 1,800 workers and conducts business with approximately 600 vendors who supply goods to its supermarkets.
The company is owned by its members, who also operate individually owned grocery chains.
Its distribution hub, which serves members of the consortium, is based at the group’s headquarters at Twickenham Park Estate in Spanish Town, St Catherine.
Alongside the retail grocery operation, the company is also in the business of owning and renting commercial retail space. Over the last two years the company has been pumping cash into the development of shopping centres, one of which is the Progressive Shopping Centre on Barbican Road in Kingston, which opened in 2021.
The company has said it will develop at least three more shopping centres across Jamaica by 2026, with the targeted parishes being Westmoreland, St Ann and St Catherine.
The other three complexes owned and operated by the consortium are the Duhaney Park Shopping Centre and Harbour View Shopping Centre in Kingston, and Westgate Shopping Centre in Montego Bay.