MONTEGO BAY, St James – Principals of Arya QSR Limited, the franchise holder for BirdShack Fried Chicken in Jamaica, have announced plans for a third store in Montego Bay just in time for Christmas. The news came from Chief Executive Officer Wayne Cummings during the opening of their $80-million second location at Barnett Tech Park.

“I’m pleased to announce that we are now committed to our third store and it will be located at the bottom of Barnett Street, across from the bus park,” he told those gathered at the new store last Friday. The tech park is on Fairfield Road, off the heavily trafficked Marco Brown Boulevard.

“We will open that store before Christmas,” Cummings added to applause.

Eyes firmly on the blueprint to have nine stores opened within five years, he said a fourth location may be on stream by January 2024. Kingston is being touted as the location for that one.

The BirdShack group opened its first store in Whitter Village, Ironshore, St James in May 2022. Cummings is thrilled by the reception from the market.

“I can tell you the kind of ambition that we have, the kind of propensity that we have for representing the BirdShack brand — which is new to Jamaica, is new to the Caribbean — is that we are going to exceed those nine stores. I have no doubt we can get to 20 in around that time,” he declared.

He said the team intends to expand the franchise into every parish, finding good locations in which to set up.

They are confident that their newest location at Barnett Tech Park, in the midst of a number of business processing outsourcing companies, was a good move.

“To be truthful, once we came and saw it we didn’t even think twice. We said absolutely yes, we are going to do it,” Cummings told the Jamaica Observer after last Friday’s opening ceremony.

“I’m convinced that we are going to be a draw for the residents in and around this area,” he asserted.

The bulk of the $80 million pumped into the location was spent on putting the right equipment in place.

“That was mainly spent on the specialised equipment we have in the kitchen: our fryers, our kettle fryers. Unlike the other store, we put in a very large walk-in capacity for refrigeration as well as freezer, offices, larger staff facilities, etc,” Cummings explained.

The Barnett Tech Park store will provide customers with a raft of amenities that are not available at the much smaller Whitter Village location.

“We’ve gone from a 900 square feet store to a 2,200 square feet store. We have in-dining, we have a drive-through. We also have a much larger counter to accommodate a fairly large size of our customer base,” Cummings stated.

He said the support received from patrons at the Ironshore location played a major role in determining the design of the new store and amenities offered.

“Anybody who comes to Whitter Village knows that we’re basically bursting at the seams. People are lining up on the outside and we appreciate them and we appreciate their patience,” he said.