Susan Gordon, Business Reporter

Loshusan Supermarket in Barbican, St. Andrew, is one of 24 stores in the Progressive Group. - File photos

Though some of the local grocery business was swallowed up by the physically and politically stormy climate of 2007, at the end of the year, supermarkets said they retained their market positions, with Super Plus again claiming the dominant share.

Three of the four major chains concentrated on expanding the number of outlets, while most indicated their growth was from sales.

"I believe the market share has not changed," said Wayne Chen, chief executive officer of the family-run Super Plus Foods, who less than a year ago said the chain held 40 per cent of the market.

Super Plus now operates 30 supermarkets and 14 convenient stores.

Progressive Grocers - a consortium of individual supermarket owners operating under different names - added two supermarkets at Spanish Town, St. Catherine, and Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, to boost their count to 24.

MegaMart increased its food retail chain to three in Jamaica, with its 95,000 square foot and largest operation in Montego Bay - a US$20 million investment.

New stores

But MegaMart CEO Gassan Azan has also opened another store in The Bahamas, and is heading next to Trinidad, but the details of those investments were not immediately available.

Back home, Hi-Lo Foodstores, the only grocery operation that belongs to a public company, conglomerate GraceKennedy Limited, made no addition to its 13 stores, saying its focus was placed this year on growing the brand and customer base.

"We've seen our customer numbers grow over 2006," said Hi-Lo's Managing Director Andrea Coy.

Coy said in the grocery market, the number of stores was not a proxy for market share or position, but would not comment on Hi-Lo's stake, nor its volume of customers.

While none of the players commented on profit, Chen was the only operator who did not withhold sales figures.

"Sales were flat in real terms," he told Wednesday Business.

Revenues grew about 10 per cent, he said, but with inflation now running at 14 per cent year to date, and an annualised 16 per cent, those gains would have been wiped out.

Turnover for Super Plus was between $11 billion and $12 billion last year. The 10 per cent increase would have pushed revenues to $13.2 billion in sales made for 2007.

Competition

As for the new MegaMart store sited at Catherine Hall, almost next door Fairvew Plaza where Super Plus has its largest operation in Montego Bay, Chen said it was too early to estimate the level of competition he will face.

Slim Slung Chin, spokesperson for the Progressive Group, said he would not comment on the sales figures for the consortium of supermarkets but that sales were barely above inflation.

He said the slide of the Jamaican dollar has also cut consumer spending power, resulting in people buying less for the same money.

Coy of Hi-Lo said while she would not disclose the statistics on market share or sales figure for the year, the chain did well.

"We enjoyed significant growth in real terms," she said.

"We have done some new things like revolutionising the supermarket experience," she said, speaking of its newest offering where the supermarket offers to bake the customers' ham, for example, if purchased at Hi-Lo, and the motorised shopping carts introduced for the disabled.

Wednesday Business did not reach Azan for an update on MegaMart.

susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com