GOLDEN Krust Caribbean Bakery & Grill chain is launching an aggressive five-year plan to open 50 new franchise restaurants across the United States. This expansion drive aims to deepen its presence in existing markets like Georgia, Texas, and the Carolinas while pursuing entry into new markets such as Washington and Virginia.

It marks the latest ambitious chapter for a business that began in 1989 when five Hawthorne siblings and in-laws pooled their savings in a classic Jamaican “pardner” draw to open a single shop in the Bronx, aiming to “stop working for people” and to “bring Jamaica back to New York”.

Thirty-six years later, that family venture has grown to encompass 103 restaurants in eight states and its patties in roughly 20,000 retail outlets. Yet in early December, the company’s principals were not scouting sites for new stores. They were on the ground in Jamaica, directing a targeted aid mission for farmers and schools devastated by Hurricane Melissa — a direct investment in the homeland that inspired the brand, proving that for this family empire, staggering growth and foundational roots remain inextricably linked.

The expansion follows a clear geographic plan. The company will deepen its presence in its eight existing states — New York, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, and Texas—while securing licenses to enter new markets.

“We’re looking at Georgia, definitely. I’m aggressively trying to find some more locations [in that state],” said Jacqueline Hawthorne Robinson, president and CEO of Golden told Jamaica Observer in an interview in December. The chain currently has 18 stores in Georgia and 26 in Florida, its second-largest market. Notably, half of all Golden Krust restaurants are in New York, primarily within the metropolitan area and boroughs.

“We are also looking to expand to Washington, Virginia, and South Carolina,” Hawthorne Robinson confirmed. “We have to work on getting license for some of those places and then move into them.”

This growth, executives stress, is fuelled by a fundamental brand evolution. Golden Krust is no longer just a diasporic favourite; it has gone mainstream.

“We were the first taste of Jamaica for a lot of non-Jamaicans,” explained Steven Clarke, vice-president of marketing, who joined the family business in 2011. He describes the customer base as a tree: “So we have the roots, which is the core customer, the Yardman (as Jamaicans are referred to abroad) who wants his cowfoot, and then the branches which are usually kids of those people… and then you have the mainstream market which are the leaves.”

Director of Quality Assurance, Research and Development, and Regulatory Affairs Christopher Hylton puts it succinctly: “We have gone mainstream for some time.” This broad appeal, bolstered by supplying the New York City Department of Education’s school system, gives the company confidence to push beyond traditional enclaves. “You can drop a Golden Krust almost anywhere and you know you’re going to make it, because we’re now national,” Hawthorne Robinson told the
Business Observer.

The platform for this growth is a formidable operational machine. The company operates two corporate stores, with the remaining 101 owned by franchisees. Parallel to this, its consumer packaged goods division has achieved staggering ubiquity, with microwaveable patties in approximately 20,000 retail “doors,” including giants like Walmart, Publix, Costco, Stop & Shop, and H-E-B.

Managing this scale requires meticulous oversight. “Basically, I deal with everything that has to do with government,” Hylton said, who has been with the company for nearly 20 years. His department is the final gatekeeper, ensuring compliance with a trio of agencies: the New York State Department of Agriculture, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This rigorous framework is non-negotiable for a company whose products are shipped nationwide.

This corporate sophistication belies a profoundly humble origin. The story is etched in family lore: a meeting in 1989 at a little restaurant on White Plains Road off 233rd Street in the Bronx. The five founders were siblings Lowell, Jackie, Milton, and Lloyd Hawthorne, and their sister-in-law, Velma Hawthorne.

The catalyst was a shared frustration with the American dream’s script. “We all came together,” recalled Hawthorne Robinson. “We were like, ‘Okay, I’m having problems at my job… He [Lowell] really wanted to get out of the police department. And we wanted to do something on our own.”

At the time, Hawthorne Robinson was working for the city’s Bureau of Child Welfare. Her brother, Lowell Hawthorne, was in the NYPD’s Gun Division. They, along with their brothers Milton and Lloyd and sister-in-law Velma, had emigrated from Jamaica in the early 1980s but found their professional lives stifling. The solution wasn’t to find new jobs — it was to create their own.

Drawing directly from their heritage, they turned to what they knew. Their father, Ephraim Hawthorne, had owned and operated the renowned Hawthorne and Sons Bakery in Border, St Andrew, since 1949. Bread, buns, and patties were in their blood. The concept was straightforward yet ambitious: a Bronx bakery and patty shop that would replicate the quality and taste of home.

During that first meeting in a café on White Plains Road near 233rd Street, they debated names. From a shortlist of possibilities, they chose one that evoked the perfect, flaky finish of a world-class patty: Golden Krust. It was more than a brand; it was a declaration, a promise to bring a genuine piece of Jamaica to the heart of New York.

With capital raised through their pardner draw, they opened the first store at 1381 East Gun Hill Road in the Bronx in August 1989, making patties in the basement. Success was instant and overwhelming. “The lines were out the door, especially on Saturdays. We couldn’t keep up,” said Hawthorne Robinson. Customers drove from Connecticut and beyond, buying dozens of patties and breads, she recalled.

Growth forced innovation. Patties were initially handmade. “Trying to roll the dough, fill it with a scoop, and use the fork to make the edges, that works if you have ten or fewer stores. But when you get beyond that point, you have to scale,” said Clarke. The family invested in a production facility in the South Bronx in 1993 and imported automated machinery.

A pivotal moment came in 1996 when Golden Krust became the first Caribbean business to secure a franchise license in the United States. Their first franchisee, Earl Chin, opened a store in Flatbush, Brooklyn, in 1997; he remains with the company today with two additional locations in Florida. The growth exploded, hitting 100 locations by 2005. The menu expanded from core curries to include oxtail, barbecue, fish, and a full pastry line.

It is this sense of legacy and community that explains why, in early December 2025, the company’s top executives were in St Elizabeth and Clarendon instead of a corporate boardroom. Moved by the devastation of Hurricane Melissa, they organised a relief mission for farmers within their Jamaican supply chain and for schools in the hardest-hit parishes.

“It was a no-brainer,” said Hylton. “We vouched the whole idea… The diaspora is why we exist. So we just could not sit back and just not do anything.”

Working through their supplier, Carita Jamaica Limited, they identified 10 approved farmers across St. Elizabeth, Manchester, Clarendon, St Mary, and St Catherine. Each received targeted support — seedlings, fertilisers, irrigation pumps, drip hoses—valued at approximately $300,000 per farmer, tailored to each recipient’s individual needs.

Concurrently, they partnered with the Ministry of Education’s National Education Trust to fund critical repairs for five schools in the worst-affected areas of St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Manchester, and Clarendon. The effort also included the distribution of care packages in devastated communities.

“We don’t want to look at what we are doing as something that is transactional. We want to basically do something that is sustainable,” Hylton emphasised. The mission was branded “GK for Jamaica”.

GK here means Golden Krust.

As Golden Krust positions itself for its next major growth surge, the company embodies a powerful duality. It is a savvy, aggressive franchisor with detailed geographic targets and mainstream appeal. Simultaneously, it remains a family-built institution where decisions are weighed against a deeper purpose.

The expansion plan and the relief mission are two sides of the same coin: a business leveraging its strength to secure its future, while instinctively using that same strength to honour its past.

“For us at Golden Krust, we have no limit; right now, the sky is the limit,” declared Hawthorne Robinson, the founder who once worked for the Bureau of Child Welfare. “We have a team that’s filled with vibrancy and the team is ready to go… We’re energised and we just want to push now.”

From a pardner draw in the Bronx to 20,000 supermarket freezers, the push continues, firmly rooted in the soil of Jamaica.

The sky is the limit for us now, says Golden Krust President and CEO Jacqueline Hawthorne Robinson, while outlining the company’s five-year plan to launch 50 new US franchise locations. The expansion will deepen the brand’s presence in the American South and target entry into new states. Christopher Hylton, director of QA, R&D and regulatory affairs, looks on. (Photo: Karl Mclarty)

Any good tree will have leaves, says Golden Krust Vice-President of Marketing Steven Clarke, explaining the brand’s strategy to grow beyond its core Jamaican Diaspora base. His “tree” metaphor describes the company’s broadening mainstream appeal, which underpins its aggressive five-year expansion plan. (Photo: Karl Mclarty)

Golden Krust opened its first franchise location in Brooklyn, New York, to Earl Chin in 1996.

The late co-founder and former CEO Lowell Hawthorne at the patty plant in 1993. Golden Krust moved its manufacturing plant to the South Bronx and eventually purchased nearly the entire block, from 172nd Street to Claremont Parkway on Park Avenue.

The Hawthorne siblings, along with their spouses, put their savings together and opened the first Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery at 1381 E Gunhill Road, New York.

Golden Krust executives (from left): Jacqueline Hawthorne Robinson, president and CEO; Christopher Hylton, director of QA, R&D and regulatory affairs; and Steven Clarke, vice-president of marketing. (Photo: Karl Mclarty)