Eroline Fo
Eroline Foods
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A Proud Journey WITH Consolidated FoodS Ltd.
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Mini Feature
ive years ago, February 2004 to be exact, a successful marriage took place between two of the island’s largest supermarkets. JQ’s and Julian’s merged to form Consolidated Foods Limited (CFL), which set out to provide Saint Lucia with a global retail experience and invest its profits back into the local economy. The Super J Supermarket brand was successfully launched the following year. The journey and growth of Consolidated Foods as an indigenous company is one all Saint Lucians can be proud of. The last five years has resulted in unprecedented changes in the retail landscape, as CFL has sought to establish clear points of differentiation in its operations which have worked to the advantage of the customer. All this has been guided by a mission to operate at international standards, earn the trust and loyalty of customers, recruit and retain the best talent, caring for the community, while running a profitable business in a sustainable manner. With eight conveniently located Super J supermarkets around the island, CFL has transformed supermarket shopping in Saint Lucia and is continually adapting to accommodate changes in consumer trends and patterns in the areas of information technology, health and wellness, convenience, as well as food safety. The last few years has also resulted in a complete remodeling of the Super J Rodney Bay and Sunny Acres stores as well improvements in the Boulevard and La Clery stores. Added to this, was the installation of state of the art point of sale systems at all of the supermarkets, as well as an expansion of the cold storage and dry warehouse facilities, featuring modernized warehousing & inventory management systems. In 2008, CFL achieved one of its most impressive successes to date with the opening of the island’s first megastore Mega J, a major CFL accomplishment in 2009.
The Franchisees However a unique aspect of Consolidated Foods Limited, which is not often spoken about are the Super J franchise stores – Eroline Foods (based in Soufriere) and Ultramart Inc. (five stores - one in Soufriere, four in Castries). Following the merger of the two supermarkets, the four small stores operated by the then JQ Charles, which were under 7000 square feet, did not fit into the management model going forward. Recognizing the potential of these “smaller” stores to service the community and the opportunity to work with a local entrepreneur to bring the brands, pricing, level of service of a Super BUSINESSFOCUS Oct / Nov 2009
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