Golden Krust on track to open 10 new US stores
GOLDEN Krust Caribbean Bakery and Grill today opens another distribution outlet for Caribbean food products in Port Charlotte, Florida, as part of its expansion plans.
The baking company will also host the grand opening of three additional Florida locations, including Highway 50, Clermont on Saturday; Atlantic Boulevard, Margate, and Oakland Park Boulevard, Sunrise later this month, according to data published on its website.
Chief Executive Officer Lowell Hawthorne, the Jamaica Observer Business Leader for 2010, made the announcement at the Jamaica National Outlook for the Future Forum held in New York last month. The new Port Charlotte outlet located in Tamiami Trail joins 22 Golden Krust stores in the state of Florida and over 122 across the United States.
“We are on track to open 10 stores this year, and of course enjoying many partnerships with Jamaican companies. One such partnership is with Wisynco’s Bigga soda here in the United States,” he told the audience.
“It’s a win-win situation for both organisations. Bigga expands its brand in the United States, while we provide the customers here with the taste of Jamaica.”
Hawthorne noted that with more than 20,000 partners across the United States, Golden Krust remains the gateway for Jamaican companies wishing to expand in the United States.
Golden Krust currently manufactures buns, cakes, hard-dough bread, tutti fruity and gizzadas, while the restaurant arm prepares daily Caribbean-flavoured meals. The baking company is also the distributor of a wide variety of patties, including: beef, chicken, vegetable, soy, spinach, and now curry mutton patties.
Last year, the company inked a two-year deal with Kuwait’s Everest Foods Company to distribute patties to the Middle East. Everest already has footprints across Kuwait, Jordan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon.
Under the agreement, Golden Krust supplies the Middle Eastern company with a 20-foot container of patties, prepared under the Halal guidelines to meet Muslim requirements.
Hawthorne said the deal “brings the company one step closer to fulfilling its 2020 vision of making Jamaican-styled patties and jerk chicken mainstream food items”.
