Watts New Limited, a dealer in electronics and computers, has expanded into Montego Bay where it will operate two stores at opposite ends of the city, pushing the number of outlets to five.

The store at Fairview Shopping Centre at Bogue opened Monday. A smaller operation will debut at Whitter Village, a development still in progress at Ironshore.

"We see the recession as an opportunity where we put ourselves in a position to grow when the recession is over," said general manager Stacy Randle.

Watts New, which began operating in 1997, has seen a reduction in sales like many other businesses.

"We have the same complaints as anybody else but it has not fallen that terribly," she said. "You still have people who are spending."

Great demand

Randle and her siblings, who run the company with the guidance of father Trevor Randle, said there was a demand for the company's product in the western end of the island.

"You would have some customers who would take the bus to come into Kingston to purchase our products and they would beg us to open a branch in Montego Bay," she said.

The Fairview outlet is a 2,000-square foot operation that has created six new jobs. The other store will employ four people, pushing total complement at the five outlets to 30.

Watts New opened its first store at Tropical Plaza in Kingston, followed a decade later by another in Liguanea in 2007.

The third store, and first outside the capital, came shortly after in Ocho Rios, St Ann.

Randle did not disclose the investment in the new stores, saying the cost was still being tabulated.

The company, however, appears ready to put a lock on new stores and is choosing, instead, to take its next plans for growth online.

Watts New is in negotiations to forge a new partnership with a courier service company, said Randle, to deliver orders made online.

"We can't open stores everywhere," said Randle. "This is a way of providing a service."

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com

Apology

In an article entitled " Watts New to open two stores in MoBay" which appeared in The Gleaner of November 13, 2009 the photograph of Arthur Richard Phidd, President of Art Phidd & Associates Inc., was incorrectly inserted in the article and identified as Trevor Randle. The correct photograph of Trevor Randle was subsequently published.

The Gleaner Company Limited wishes to advise that Arthur Richard Phidd has never been associated with Watts New Limited.

We regret the error.