Approximately 50 persons will be employed at a Hi-Lo Food Stores supermarket to be opened at the end of November in the Portmore Pines Shopping Centre in Portmore, St Catherine.

GraceKennedy Group chief operating officer Don Wehby made the disclosure to the Business Observer yesterday. Hi Lo is a subsidiary of the GraceKennedy Group.

The supermarket, which is currently being furnished, will be Hi-Lo’s first in the growing municipality of Portmore, which has a population close to 200,000 persons. According to Wehby, the planned opening is a reflection of the strong upside that Portmore has as a business destination

“Portmore is a growing community and the move to open a store there is consistent with our strategy to expand into areas where there is commercial and residential growth,” said Wehby, who said that the move represents an investment of US$1.1 million.

The 24,000 square-foot building which will house the new supermarket is being leased. The supermarket will be Hi-Lo’s 16th across the island. The supermarket chain currently has six branches in Kingston and St Andrew, three in Westmoreland, two in St James, and one each in St Catherine, St James, St Mary and St Ann.

“Our Hi Lo supermarket chain has shown good improvements in revenue and profitability over the last few years. We have a good management team and a dedicated staff who has been doing an excellent job,” he said, adding Our recent acquisitions in Mobay, Bogue (Fairview) and Pavillion in Half Way Tree are meeting our expectations and are doing well. We are very focussed on customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.”