Caribbean Producers Jamaica (CPJ) says it will continue its expansion with the opening of a new store in Drax Hall, St Ann.

Interim CEO Mark Hart broke the news exclusively on Taking Stock with Kalilah Reynolds.

“We will have another CPJ market, in what I would say is the fastest-growing little area … and we’re in good company in this location,” Hart said. 

Drax Hall has seen a large commercial boost in recent weeks with the opening of a new KFC restaurant, as well as a Starbucks cafe that is scheduled to begin operations soon. 

Hart said that the new store should be up and running before summer. 

He added that a new store in Montego Bay, an upgrade to CPJ’s current space, will open on March 1. 

The addition of two new stores is just one part of the company’s plans for expansion for the new year, according to Hart, who noted that the company is looking to grow its retail business in 2022. 

Hart said CPJ was established mainly to service the tourism sector by providing everything hotels might need. He said, however, that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the company to pivot and explore other areas. 

“We will be putting additional focus into retail [for 2022]. We’re building a very nice team of managers… and we’re putting a lot of energy into it,” he said. 

The CEO said the company set a target of US$50 million in five years for their retail business. 

Coming off the success of being the number one performing stock of 2021, Hart said he is confident the company can achieve this goal. 

CPJ’s stock price closed 2021 up 405%, opening the year at $2.58 and ending at $13.04. 

According to Hart, the company’s performance can be attributed to the implementation of a new management system that has improved efficiency. 

“We had actually gone through something in June 2018. We were implementing a warehouse management system, that was actually a failure,” he explained.

“It caused a lot of disruption in the company … because with a logistics company when you have a failure of IT, it’s a pretty catastrophic event,” he added. 

Hart said this led to the company seeking to modernise its management system. 

He said the company began upgrading its system right before the pandemic hit.

He said that while the pandemic served a major blow to the tourism industry, which accounts for some 80% of CPJ’s business, it allowed the new management system to be implemented and tested.

“When business started to come back, we found that instead of 450 people, we could run the company with 350 and we were able to save, through efficiencies, close to US$500,000 per month in costs,” Hart said. 

He said investors are now seeing the benefits of those actions.

“We were working harder than ever during the pandemic, we just weren’t shipping products or making any money. But we were doing very important work,” he said. 

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