Susan Gordon, Business Reporter

The Super Plus store at Fairview Plaza, Montego Bay. Super Plus now claims over 30 per cent of the grocery market.

Super Plus Food Stores Limited is stripping the group of its loss-making stores, and says that the business is attempting to grow revenues by concentrating more on services like its cambio operations.

Chief executive officer Wayne Chen said yesterday that grocery had become the "loss leader" for the supermarket chain, but gave no specifics on the other business segments that were underperforming.

Stores closed

Four stores have been culled from the group, and of the remaining 26, the majority, 22, are controlled by brothers Wayne and Richard Chen, while the others are held by other family members.

"We'll just take out those which aren't efficient," Chen told the Financial Gleaner in an interview at Super Plus' Kingston 6 training and support centre yesterday.

Stores and wholesale outlets have been shuttered at Junction, St Elizabeth; Spanish Town, St Catherine; Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, and Mandeville, Manchester.

Chen said a fifth store to be closed is the 5,000-square foot operation at Overton Plaza in Montego Bay.

Future plans

The company is now looking to grow those operations that are more robust at turning over cash or have the potential to earn.

In that vein, the store at Lane Plaza in Liguanea will be expanded by 3,000 square feet, Chen said.

Some of equipment now left idle by the closure of the store in St Catherine - a store that was less than two years old — will be used to outfit the operation in Kingston.

The company is also expanding its Park Crescent branch in Mandeville, where it has already injected $18 million into the facility.

Super Plus continues to expect a turnover in sales of under $13 billion by the end of its calendar year December 2008, according to Chen.