Island Grill yesterday opened its first express store — a sleeker, more efficient operations that may create the platform from which the quick service restaurant chain hopes to drive even further into the fast food market.

The newest outlet — located in the Clock Tower Plaza in Half Way Tree, St Andrew, and named Island Grill Express — is a scaled-down operations, which utilises less equipment and staff in a smaller space.

“Our margins are slim so we go for high volume, low margin and if we can keep the capital costs down and it works then obviously we are very competitive in the marketplace,” said Thalia Lyn, Island Grill’s CEO

Importantly, lowering capital cost associated with opening a new store — which features a walk-up counter rather than a full restaurant — and recurring costs by reducing staff count and menu options per store provides and opportunity for the chain to continue its expansion plans into foreign markets.

“If it works, and I don’t see any reason that it shouldn’t work, then these are the models we would roll-out in some of the other islands, because they don’t have the population that we have,” she said. “And if we want to open more than one restaurant as well, this would be the model to open because the bigger models are just so much more capital intensive.”

Plans are already in motion to open a new store in Barbados, the Express model would prove the best solution in the small regional markets.

Aside from scaling down operations Lyn opted for more advanced technology using an integrated order platform that informs all aspects of the operation in the restaurant should know what your order is the minute it is keyed into the system.

The platform can also be monitored remotely and provides real time data on sales volumes, attendance records and other operational elements of the restaurant.

“Everything is done right here we don’t have to refer back to a head office overseas” added Lyn yesterday at a soft launch at the store’s location. “We are more agile so we can innovate and respond to the marketplace and I have a great team.”