MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Jukie Chin, founder and proprietor of Juici Patties, says while he is expecting a loss in sales at his Clarendon Park location following the completion of the US$188-million May Pen to Williamsfield leg of Highway 2000, he believes it will be minimal.

The highway project — which will reduce travel time between Kingston, Mandeville and other points west — is expected to be completed by August. The highway bypasses Clarendon Park, which has been the home of Juici Patties, with its 21-acre headquarters, for over two decades.

Chin told the Jamaica Observer that he believes Clarendon Park will continue to get support from commuters who cannot afford the toll every day.

“… The average, day-to-day, fixed-salary person like the taxi man and the people going to work [who] cannot afford the toll [daily should still make purchases] so we would lose no business from them. I think we will lose a little business from curiosity, but once curiosity is over [some] people are going right back to the old road,” he said on Thursday.

“The persons who are above-average income travelling from Westmoreland going to Kingston, a lot of them will just say, ‘Cho, I am on the highway already; I cyaa bother stop.’ I spoke with some of them and a lot of them say, ‘If I am going in and I am not pressed for time, I am still going to pull over and buy and jump back on the [highway],’ ” he added.

For decades Clarendon Park has been the go-to place and rest stop for commuters travelling between Kingston, Mandeville and points west along the south coast. When completed, a toll plaza in the vicinity of Toll Gate will be approximately 1.2 kilometres away from Clarendon Park.

Uphill in Manchester, Chin said within the next three months there will be a new Juici Patties outlet on the Mandeville bypass neighbouring Petcom (JAMGAS). That location will increase the number of outlets in Mandeville to five. The Mandeville bypass links the Winston Jones Highway to points west and is a crucial roadway for motorists travelling on the south coast.

“We are opening a store at the gas station (JAMGAS) but it really has nothing much to do with the highway. It was [already] a plan — whether or not the toll road was going to extend to Mandeville — but some persons might see it as a reaction to the toll road because we will be losing business and we will be picking up business there,” he said.

“I think we will lose a little business, but that is not the reason why we are opening a store there,” he reiterated.

His reasoning is that people should be able to comfortably buy patties without having to contend with the long-standing issue of congestion in Mandeville.

“… We are opening a store there because Mandeville town is very congested — traffic jams all over the place,” said Chin. “We don’t have a drive-through in Mandeville and the town is congested so if you are not in the town and you feel like eating a patty, you don’t feel like going into the town to buy a patty because traffic is one… There is literally no parking [in the town], so that is really the primary reason we are opening a store there [Mandeville Bypass].”

Asked about the investment cost for the Juici Patties location at Marshall’s Pen on the Mandeville bypass, Chin said “it is a rented space”.

“The property belongs to private investors; we are only renting it. We are friends. At this point we haven’t even agreed on a rental per month yet; it is a very casual relationship,” he said.

Asked if he would encourage business owners to focus on the expansion of Mandeville by concentrating on properties on the outskirts so as to reduce congestion in the town, Chin said “everybody has a different plan”.

“We think it makes sense to put a store there on the outskirts but I am not going to tell you that others should do the same thing,” he added.

Another Juici Patties location was recently opened on lower Caledonia Road, close to other restaurant outlets.

“We recently opened one right beside Pizza Hut so that has nothing to do with the toll road,” said Chin.

Chin, who started Juici Patties as he followed his childhood dream, told the Sunday Observer a part of his life’s story.

“I went to school at Glenmuir; I used to take the bus from May Pen to Lionel Town and then to Rocky Point every day. So while waiting at the bus stop in May Pen, there was a patty shop. I noticed they were doing good business but the patty didn’t taste good,” he said.

“From there I said to my friends, ‘If I could make a good patty I would open a store in May Pen when I leave school.’ But I couldn’t make patties though, I was just saying ‘if”. And when I left school age 16 I got a holiday job in Kingston with my sister who, along with her husband, had a restaurant and a patty shop. I got a holiday job for about two months. There is where I learnt to make patties. After that I went back to Rocky Point, tried it out there and, after one year, I started business in May Pen,” he added.

Chin said there are over 60 Juici Patties locations islandwide, which includes franchises.