Restaurants of Jamaica, the operator of KFC and Pizza Hut, has set its sights on opening a new Pizza Hut location in Drax Hall, St Ann, and a new KFC restaurant in Christiana, Manchester.

Mark Myers, managing director of Restaurants of Jamaica, told the Jamaica Observer, however, that he was unable to give a timeline for the opening of the two new facilities. “There are supply chain challenges with getting equipment,” he told the Business Observer as he highlighted the difficulty in giving a timeline for the opening of the new Pizza Hut location in St Ann. He however says the hope is that it will be opened “sometime in the first quarter”.

As for the new KFC in Christiana, he said the building is currently under construction and has not been handed over as yet.

The new KFC in Christiana when it opens, will be Restaurants of Jamaica’s 41st KFC location islandwide. The company also operates 14 Pizza Huts; the new one at Drax Hall will be the 15th.

Just last week, the company opened its newest KFC location at Drax Hall, adding 50 more employees to its payroll. Restaurants of Jamaica says it does not anticipate that the new location will have any significant impact on the operations of restaurants in nearby Ocho Rios or St Ann’s Bay, as the new restaurant will cater to the immediate customer base in the restaurant’s surrounding communities, as well as customers from the surrounding commercial and tourism sector, plus those traversing the north coast highway.

The company has been in an aggressive expansion outside the Corporate Area in recent years, opening stores in Falmouth in Trelawny, May Pen in Clarendon, and Junction in St Elizabeth.

Myers declined to outline the spend the company is currently undertaking, citing that the company is privately held.

On the matter of reopening the KFC location at The University of the West Indies, Mona, Myers said the company is awaiting a directive from the school’s administrators. He pointed out that his restaurant was not the only one shuttered on the campus.

That location was shuttered because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Myers added: “Our target for early this year is that [when] we come out of this next wave is to see how we can better accommodate our customers inside our restaurants. Dining rooms are open; you can go in and dine at other restaurants. So that’s a conversation we need to have with the ministry [of health].