By McPherse Thompson, Assistant News Editor
Kenny Rogers Roasters is among the fast food chains that have closed down their local operations.
BOJANGLES, THE American fast food restaurant that opened in Jamaica with much fanfare less than five years ago, has closed its local restaurant operations and is to pull out of the island.
The decision arose primarily because Bojangles could no longer compete with Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), the country's biggest fast food chain, said Jennifer Messado, a member of the management team. The exit of Bojangles follows that of Taco Bell, Popeye's Chicken & Seafood and Kenny Rogers Roasters, with McDonald's also cutting back its operations.
"Business was bad," said attorney Jennifer Messado, who is also a director of Tasty Fast Foods. Tasty Foods held the local franchise for Bojangles in Jamaica.
"Bojangles in Jamaica cannot compete because KFC is the leader in the market," she said, "they rule the market."
The KFC brand has become a household name in Jamaica since it began operations here in the late 1970s.
Bojangles has closed its Portmore Pines outlet in Portmore, St. Catherine as well as another in Papine, St. Andrew and sent home the staff of about 40, said Mrs. Messado.
Coming on the heels of relatively recent shutting down or scaling down of operations of other fast food restaurants, Mrs. Messado said market conditions suggest that others are expected to follow.
As was the case with some of the other food outlets that were closed, the former Bojangles outlet in the Portmore Pines is expected to be reopened as an Island Grill restaurant, Mrs. Messado said.
Popeye's Chicken and Seafood, which made its debut in Jamaica 10 years ago, closed its chain of stores last October. Some of those restaurants have since been taken over by Church's Chicken, a division of AFC, the parent company for Popeye's Chicken and Texas Fried Chicken, which is said to be the second largest fried chicken chain worldwide.
Tasty Fast Foods will be liquidated as a result of the closure of the Bojangles restaurants, in which Mrs. Messado said they had invested about $36 million, but made a loss.
Bojangles, which specialised in spicy Cajun chicken, opened its first local store in the Portmore Pines in November 1998 and later another in Papine. The franchise holders had also planned five other stores in areas across the island, with Mandeville, Christiana, downtown Kingston and St. Ann's Bay identified as possible locations. However, those never got off the ground.
Its accent was on fresh food prepared to Bojangles' international specifications with chicken supplemented by dishes such as seasoned fries and 'dirty rice' - a seasoned rice with smoked sausage and pinto beans.
