CEO of Quickcart, Monique Powell has not dismissed the idea of leveraging the equities market for capital.

Speaking on Taking Stock with Kalilah Reynolds, Powell said while she can’t definitely announce that the company will go public with an Initial Public Offering (IPO), she’s not ruling it out, considering the benefits.

She said there’s no doubt that investors would be receptive to the move, especially with the company having massive growth potential and offering world class service.

CEO, Quickcart

“We have a vibrant stock market here…and considering all that, why not leverage it as a source of capital for expansion and allow many of our customers, many of whom have been in the journey from the start, to win a brick. It’s something that will be one of the options that we’ll consider strongly,” she said.

Her comments came against the background of growing competition in the delivery space as more players pop up to meet the demand. Powell said the company will continue to innovate in order to maintain their level of service and keep customers satisfied. 

For instance, Quickcart will be offering free delivery on all retail merchants (all non-restaurant partners) until November 15. 

The company, previously known as Quickplate, recently expanded from food delivery to focus on convenience at a broader level. Powell explained that the transition was spurred by the opportunities brought about by the pandemic. She said as more people stayed inside, there has been a shift in e-commerce with more people willing to pay for convenience in order to keep safe.

She said it wasn’t difficult to leverage the e-commerce and logistics infrastructure that was developed for the food delivery business. Since rebranding to Quickcart, the CEO said they’ve added Fontana Pharmacy; electronics store, Pinglings; convenience store, Circle K, and even a liquor store called Barcode, among others.

“Now there’s all these other things you can get [in addition to the restaurants that you’ve grown to love] and what we want to be is that single platform where people know that just about anything they can think of they can go online, they place that order and have it delivered to them in no time,” she said.

Powell said the five years of operating in the food delivery industry has prepared the company for the transition, pointing out that grocery delivery in particular has not been more complicated for the team. 

She reasoned that both have their peculiarities, illustrating that in the same way a restaurant may run out of a particular ingredient, a store can also run out of a particular product. 

Both instances she said would trigger a mechanism to contact the client for them to adjust their order.

“It is a difficult business and we strive to improve and deliver the best experience possible. We get it right most times and when we don’t we ensure we make it right with the customers,” said Powell. 

The company which has its roots in Kingston had branched out to the second city, Montego Bay, a few months ago. Powell said there are plans to further tap into the tourism destination.

“We managed to get quite a few popular restaurants in that space…we’ve been probably the first to approach food and grocery type delivery in this way and people are responding positively to it. There’s going to be a lot of focus in Montego Bay,” she said.

She said several other locations across the island, believed to be excellent spaces for Quickcart, are also being analysed. 

 Catch new episodes of Taking Stock LIVE with Kalilah Reynolds every Tuesday at 8pm on YouTube. 

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