Mother’s expanding via gas stations and more

Food service company Mother’s Enterprise Limited is ramping up its expansion programme through new partnerships with gas station operators, and others.

After opening the doors to a new brand, Mother’s Café, at the UWI Hospital and a Mother’s Express at the Fesco Beechwood Avenue service station, the company is aiming for at least four more branches by year end, which would grow business to at least 27 locations by December, and possibly more, were other opportunities to present themselves, according to Managing Director Sheldon Seymour.

The company has an agreement with top petroleum distributor TotalEnergies to, by year end, open four more Mother’s Express stores at its service stations located at Half- Way Tree in Kingston, Montego Bay in St James, May Pen in Clarendon, and another Kingston location that Seymour said would not be disclosed until closer to its year-end opening.

Mother’s Enterprises, which now trades as Mother’s Food Group, presently has 23 locations operating under four brands. Twenty-one of them bear the name Mother’s; one is a twin pastry and confectionery store, operating as Devon House Bakery and DHB Too; and one, Pimentos, is an open-air café. The bakery, DHB Too and Pimentos are all located at the Devon House complex in Kingston.

Of the 21 outlets bearing the Mother’s name, 15 are Mother’s Restaurant, including a new one at UWI Hospital, which operates as a 24-hour café; and five are Mother’s Express outlets that mostly cater to pedestrian traffic. Two of the five Mother’s Express operate at gas stations, namely, Fesco Beechwood and TotalEnergies Gilmour Drive/Washington Boulevard.

Mother’s Express

Seymour, who became the head manager a year ago at the takeover of Mother’s by a group of investors, says the company will be pushing the Mother’s Express brand during its current round of growth.

“This is the expansion of our Mother’s Express brand. These will offer our variety of chicken meals, patties and breakfast dishes,” he said in an interview with the Financial Gleaner.

“Fesco and Total are partners who see the value in the partnership for strategic locations, where there is the need for quality meals,” he said.

French-owned TotalEnergies operates its own food service under the Café Bonjour brand, which is a feature of many of the 77 TotalEnergies service stations across Jamaica.

TotalEnergies Jamaica said the deal with Mother’s was an extension of their convenience store offerings, and would not replace its own operations.

“Mother’s is being added to the current offerings at TotalEnergies convenience stores,” the company said in response to Financial Gleaner questions regarding the implication of the new arrangement with Mother’s.

“Customers will still be able to enjoy the convenience offered at TotalEnergies Bonjour stores,” while re-emphasising that “Mother’s is an additional offer”.

Without disclosing the number of locations, TotalEnergies said, “Café Bonjour will still be on offer at selected service stations” across Jamaica.

Seymour said Mother’s Express will complement what is offered at TotalEnergies by expanding the space that Café Bonjour occupies.

Roots Financial acquisition

The food service company’s growth agenda comes in the wake of its acquisition by Kevin Donaldson’s Roots Financial Group for an undisclosed sum in May 2023. The company, founded in 1981, was held by Adrian Foreman, Richard Foreman, Victor Hudson, and West Wind Holdings Limited.

The deal covered all 16 locations in operation then, plus the speciality stores at Devon House. The takeover, which included 100 per cent of Mother’s and its associated brands, was effected through a company called MEL 2022 Limited. The five locations added since then incorporate outlets at UWI Hospital, Annotto Bay and Highgate in St Mary, and the Express stores at the TotalEnergies Gilmour and Fesco Beechwood gas stations.

Mother’s also operates nine school canteens, with two, at Wolmer’s Boys’ and Immaculate Conception high schools, being added since the acquisition.

Another school canteen at Old Harbour High will be added come September, when the new academic year begins.

Prior to the sale of Mother’s Enterprises, Richard Foreman, who ran the business, disclosed that the company’s revenue in 2022 was $3.5 billion and that sales for 2023 were projected to top $4 billion.

Seymour, who replaced Foreman on May 15, 2023, said that over the next 12 to 18 months, there are plans to add more Mother’s restaurants as opportunities arise. The company is currently targeting expansion to Drax Hall in St Ann and Westmoreland, he said.

Donaldson said in a separate interview that Roots Financial intends to grow Mother’s to 30 locations by the first quarter of 2025. The present expansion round has so far been funded from internal resources, amounting to US$2 million, but additional funds are being sought for the buildout, he said.

“That US$2 million came from cash flow last year. Where we are now is that we’re negotiating through alternate sources, because it will be much bigger than last year,” Donaldson said. More progress is expected within two months, he added.

Comparatively, within the quick-service restaurant market, otherwise called the fast-food sector, the top position is held by Restaurants of Jamaica, which operates 40 KFC and 11 Pizza Hut franchise outlets, at last disclosure in early 2023. Other popular chains include Island Grill, Burger King, Popeye’s, Dominoes Pizza, Wendy’s, and several others.

As to the medium- to long-term plan for Mother’s, Donaldson said the vision statement articulated to the entire team, now numbering over 900, was: “Jamaica. Food. Global.”

“We want to be a dominant force in Jamaica, not just a byword, where if elsewhere is full you go to Mother’s. We want to be considered first,” he said.

The company has been added to a division of the group called Roots Gastronomy.

“Mother’s is one of the components. We also have investments in a distribution company. We also have investments in other restaurant-type businesses that make their own sauces,” Donaldson said, while declining to name the companies.

“Roots Gastronomy is building out by taking Jamaican and Caribbean food to not just the diaspora, but to the rest of the world,” he said.

neville.graham@gleanerjm.com