(Jamaica Gleaner) Unicomer Jamaica, operators of the Courts furniture chain, has transferred the operations of the Constant Spring Road store temporarily to Washington Boulevard to facilitate its expansion.
The chain’s distribution centre is also to be expanded and another store refurbished later this year.
Unicomer will add 4,000 square feet of operating space at the Constant Spring furniture store – expanding from 25,000 square feet to 29,000 square feet at a cost of J$270 million, said Managing Director Dennis Harris.
The electronic transfer station that Jamaica Money Market Brokers operated at the location has been closed down to facilitate the project, and the furniture operation has shifted to 17,000 square feet of space at the Michi shopping complex, where it opened for business on February 3.
“It’s a major redesign and as a result we could not keep the store open,” Harris said last Friday.
The Constant Spring project is the largest yet of several upgrades pursued in the last 18 months throughout the Courts furniture chain.
In the second quarter of 2011, Courts spent J$35 million to shift staff from an older location at Bogue in Montego Bay to new quarters at nearby Fairview Town Centre. Other upgrades included refurbishment of the Cross Roads, Kingston and Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, stores, and expansion of the Falmouth store.
Harris said that the 29-store chain which currently employs over 1,000 workers expects a further increase of approximately 30 jobs from business expansion during 2012.
“In addition to Constant Spring, we are also planning the expansion of our distribution centre, which is also a major project, in anticipation of further growth and also to improve our logistics. We also have plans to improve the store network with one other major refurbishment scheduled within the next 12 months,” he said.
The new Constant Spring store “will take retailing to a new level in Jamaica. The design will be different,” Harris told Wednesday Business.
Harris disclosed that Constant Spring is the largest store in terms of product sales but declined to disclose data on revenue for the store or for the wider chain.
“We are a private company. Management remains optimistic that that there will be growth in the economy and this is reflected in the sizeable capital investment we are putting into our operation. All stores are reporting increased business the previous year,” said the Unicomer head.
Courts Jamaica was once a publicly listed company but was taken private when its United Kingdom owners sold out to the Siman family in 2006.
The Courts chain remains the largest furniture retailer in Jamaica.
