Food chain and patty making company Mother’s Enterprise Limited, in its quest to grow market share and to go after increased revenues, has added two new concessions to its growing network of school canteens with plans afoot to offer similar services across corporate entities.

“As we continue on our growth path, we are happy to have secured our latest partnerships with Wolmer’s Boys’ and Immaculate high schools to offer our canteen/concession services to them. We also have some other institutions with which we have signed agreements, including one which we have just concluded and will be announcing at the appropriate time,” said Sheldon Seymour, managing director for the quick service, speaking to the Jamaica Observer in an interview this week.

“We had about seven schools prior to now including Naggo Head Primary, Jamaica College, Excelsior High and Community College among others, so we have been in the concession space for some time. As we expand, we are, however, taking our time to understand the space and we have a great team that is helping us to build out quickly,” he also said to the Business Observer, noting that the concession service, which provides a great platform and opportunity for the more than four-decade-old company, has been helping it to connect with future customers, providing early exposure to the brand and its products.

“Outside of the traditional retail store offerings of patty, fried chicken, fries and burgers, we try to provide a wide cross-section of meals, including home cooked and vegetarian options at these canteens,” Seymour said, indicating that the company through its distribution channels also sells its patties and other baked products to a much larger cross-section of schools across the island.

The fast food chain, which was acquired by the Kevin Donaldson-led Roots Financial earlier this year for an undisclosed sum, is privately held and outside of its school canteens and some 16 food stores, also operates a bakery and Pimentos restaurant at Devon House.

Bullish on its long-standing growth objectives along with some new ones, Seymour said that plans are now underway to bring the store count to at least 20 islandwide, in the process upgrading and adding a few to have drive-thru facilities.

Having suffered significant fallouts in its business during the novel coronavirus pandemic, the managing director said a number of other strategies including export opportunities and those concerning regional and local expansions are also being eyed to accelerate growth in the medium term for the Jamaican company.

“We’ve only taken over operations [from the previous owners] about three months now but we have been taking our time to fully shape out the business as we position it to become a true Jamaican company — one not only known for its retail offerings but for all the other areas in which we offer service. We provide catering services for private and corporate events and we also make our own ice cream and other confectionery items sold at some of our retail stores,” Seymour said.

“In the latter part of the year into early 2024, I think people will start to have a better understanding of what Mother’s has to offer to the local market,” he added while pointing to steady ready growth seen in the last few months as a positive sign which speaks to the strong earning potential of the more than 800 staff member strong company.

Reports of the company’s finances prior to its new ownership shows it doing sales of about $3.5 billion up to 2022.

The intention Seymour said is to, however, grow the company well above those numbers.

“We are on a positive path and I can foresee within the next six months, revenue growth of more than 50 per cent and we are being very aggressive about this. These revenues we expect to come from not just sales, but from our strategic moves into new segments of the market and product offerings,” he said.

“The entire team is excited about the future, we have already looked at where we want to be at the end of 2024 and also for people to raise their perception of the business to see us as a premium food company. There is a lot of work to be done over the next 12 months to grow this appreciation as we give much focus to store locations, offerings and customer convenience,” he further said of the outlook.