• Tropical Gyros to add 48 jobs by summer ‘24

• Targets investor dividend payout after Q3 end

• Talking to 3 franchisees, asked over Jamaica

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN restaurant chain is aiming to double its workforce by July through the creation of 48 new jobs with revenues for the year-to-date some 15 percent ahead of 2023.

Chef Kevin Culmer, Tropical Gyros chief executive, told Tribune Business the brand will fulfill its expansion promises to investors who financed its crowd-funding capital raise through the imminent launch of its mobile food trailer and summer 2024 opening of a third outlet on Carmichael Road. It is also targeting paying a dividend to shareholders after the 2024 third quarter ends.

Disclosing that the combined investment in both ventures will be around $270000 he added that the Carmichael Road restaurant will create some 40 posts by offering night window service until midnight. The food trailer, which is expected to start operating within two weeks from the same site as the new restaurant, will add six jobs while a further two will be needed at its production centre to meet the extra demand.

Chef Culmer said the chain has withstood any fall-out from the controversy surrounding ArawakX, the platform through which it sourced investor monies, because “persons can see what we’ve done with their investment” via the addition of its second site on JFK Drive and the production centre.

However, Tropical Gyros’ growth post-Carmichael Road’s July 2024 opening is intended to be driven by franchise partners rather than Chef Culmer himself. He confirmed is in talks with three potential Bahamian franchisees, one of whom is located in Freeport and the other two in New Providence.

The Tropical Gyros chief said he has already given his blessing for potential restaurants in downtown Freeport’s Regency Plaza, and at the former Pizza Hut location in the Prince Charles Shopping Centre in Nassau, and is waiting on the respective franchisees to secure the necessary financing and other resources to move forward.

And, while he has already been approached about international expansion to Jamaica, Chef Culmer said he plans to focus on Tropical Gyros’ Bahamian expansion first and become “more comfortable” operating multiple outlets and the logistics/supply chain at home first before venturing overseas.

Tropical Gyros was the second crowd-fund via ArawakX to successfully hit its minimum target, raising a net $218,193 in new investor equity after the payment of offering fees, and Chef Culmer told Tribune Business: “The beauty is that people are able to see what we’ve done with the investment. We want to expand. That is the beauty about that.

“I just landed my food trailer. It’s an exclusive-only food trailer, very well done. I had it build and designed in Florida at United Food Trucks, and expect to launch that in two weeks as soon as we get it licensed.

We’re also building out the Carmichael Road location and that should be open this summer.

“We had to put that on pause as we had to put money into the food trailer. They’re not cheap, the good ones. The total landed cost is $120,000. What we plan to do is put it on the same site where we’re building out Carmichael Road to generate presence there, so that when the restaurant opens people know Tropical Gyros is there.”

Chef Culmer said electricity and bathroom facilities are already present at the Carmichael Road site to enable the mobile food truck to operate and, once the physical restaurant is operational, Tropical Gyros plans to “move it around” to various sites in New Providence.

“We’re looking at the investment in Carmichael as being $150,000,” he added of the restaurant. “We have to do some ground work on the outside of the building to get it up to scratch. That’s going to be a seven-day-a-week operation. We’re going to open in July, and have a night window service from 8pm to 12am midnight.

“We’re looking at 40 jobs for the Carmichael Road outlet, six for the food trailer and will need two more persons in the production centre to generate the inventory we need to support this operation. We have 42 persons on staff right now.”

The Carmichael Road and mobile food trailer expansion will thus see Tropical Gyros more than double the size of its existing workforce. “We’re looking now,” Chef Culmer said of the extra staff need. “We’re going to start to recruit persons around May so we can get people fully trained, not rush it, and find the right mix of people that we’re targeting.”

The Carmichael Road restaurant will be located in the building opposite John Chea, just before the police station for persons travelling west. The chain will share the property with a clothing store located on its eastern side.

But, once Carmichael Road is operational, Chef Culmer disclosed that Tropical Gyros’ continued expansion will be placed in the hands of others. “After Carmichael Road, we will probably not open any more restaurants

ourselves,” he said. “We prefer to grow through franchisees as opposed to our own operations.

“I’m in discussions with three potential franchisees. One for Grand Bahama and two for here in New Providence. I’ve been to Grand Bahama a few times, been to Freeport on a couple of trips to find a place with the potential franchisee. I’ve approved that location and they’re trying to put the funding and financing together to bring it to fruition.

“We have a franchisee looking to put one on Prince Charles Drive, in the shopping plaza where Super Value and KFC are, where Pizza Hut was located, and another looking at the new plaza being built at Old Fort Bay.”

Chef Culmer told this newspaper that Tropical Gyros’ potential Freeport franchisee is eyeing the downtown Regency Plaza that used to house a Quiznos eatery. “I’m just hoping the franchisee for each one is able to secure that location,” he said. “With the Pizza Hut one, my wife and I were talking about opening a location in that plaza because it’s right around the corner from Sea Breeze where we live.

“They have to move fast because a lot of persons will be looking to capitalise on Pizza Hut moving out. I’m waiting to hear from him. He’s putting his package together and hopefully next week we hear from him.”

Tropical Gyros’ opportunities are not confined to The Bahamas. “I had a meeting with three gentlemen who want to bring us to Jamaica,” Chef Culmer disclosed, “and wanted to fly us down to Jamaica at the Easter weekend to look at the environment.

“It sounds exciting, but I’m a little reluctant right now. We want to take advantage of Bahamian expansion first. I want to feel more comfortable operating multiple units in The Bahamas first before we take on international. Although I feel we can compete internationally, I want to feel comfortable about the logistical aspects before we open outside The Bahamas.”

Chef Culmer said Tropical Gyros is enjoying an improved trading performance in early 2024 as inflation-related cost pressures, including electricity expenses ease when

compared to 2023. “We had a very good sales year last year,” he recalled. “Expenses were high, but we were still able to show a profit [margin] of about 8 percent.”

With expenses equal to about 92 percent of revenues, the Tropical Gyros chief explained: “The cost of goods spiked to 55 per- cent. It used to fluctuate between 38 percent and 42 percent. Then the summer months, when BPL was just rampant, my BPL bill spiked by 300 percent for four months right across all locations. It just hammered us.

“This year [revenues] are about 15 percent over last year for the same period, and we’ve been able to operate at 88 percent [expenses to revenue ratio] for the first two months. A lot of it is because we’ve seen a 3 percent decrease in the cost of goods and the cost of electricity has stabilised.

“We feel like we’re on the right track with the opening of the Carmichael Road location this summer and mobile food trailer. We should be looking to pay a dividend after the end of the third quarter” which will close on September 30.