Citing weak customer response, the local franchisee of American fast-food company Popeye’s Chicken & Seafood is pulling out of Jamaica and relocating to Trinidad and Tobago.
“The Popeye’s brand has not attracted the volumes of traffic in the Jamaican market that we would have liked,” said Richard Lake, proprietor of Restaurant Associates, which holds the franchise for both Popeye’s and Burger King in Jamaica. “However, it is attracting this in Trinidad, so we are moving the equipment there to make better use of the assets.”
Popeye’s is owned by AFC Enterprises of the USA. In 2004, Restaurants Associates Limited negotiated the Jamaican franchise when businessman Anthony Levy surrendered the rights to the brand after it had expired and came up for renewal. Under the franchise agreement, the six restaurants from which Popeye’s once operated were excluded from the deal, thus Lake established separate restaurants in Liguanea and on Constant Spring Road.
Popeye’s will now join a long list of American fast-food companies, including internationally renowned brands such as McDonald’s and Taco Bell, which were unable to firmly implant themselves in the competitive Jamaican market, which analysts have long described as over-crowded.
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