SUPERPLUS Food Stores opened its 20th supermarket last week and the company’s boss, Wayne Chen said the family-owned chain will open another half a dozen stores by year-end.

Additionally, SuperPlus is investing $100 million in a new information technology system which will enhance its capacity at inventory control and to monitor customer choice and loyalty, according to Chen.

“The system will also serve as a platform to add other services,” he told the Observer. Better knowledge of shopping patterns will help to inform decisions not only on supplies but the kinds and frequency of products worth bringing under the store brand.

With sales of $5 billion last year, SuperPlus is by far the island’s largest retail food group — and its fastest growing. It has opened 10 stores in the past two-and-a-half years.

” We have a 10-year plan which sets our growth in branch numbers,” explained Chen, the 1998 Business Observer Business Leader of the Year.

Chen declined to say how many branches the group proposed to open over the next decade, but said the mandate of the business plan was to build critical mass, giving the chain purchasing clout, resulting in lower prices to consumers.

The newest SuperPlus branch was opened last Thursday in Bogue, Montego Bay and is to be followed soon by one at Great George’s Street in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland.

The other branches will follow, one every month between September and December, in Spanish Town, St Catherine and Cross Roads, Hope Road and Trafalgar Road in Kingston. Each branch will occupy between 24,000 to 28,000 square feet and employ 60 persons each.

Although family members will not run all the of the new branches, Chen intends to maintain a familiar atmosphere throughout the chain.

“We will develop training and systems which allow us to replicate the culture of success in the family-run stores,” he said.

As such, the managers of the soon-to-be-opened supermarkets are being trained at the Portmore Pines branch.