"It might sound odd, but we have never measured our success on how big or small our business is; it's like an experiment that keeps growing," says Chen. - PHOTOS BY WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER

TO FULLY understand the success of Super Plus supermarket chain's CEO Wayne Chen and his siblings, one would have to know that they literally digested the culture of business from their mother's milk. While other boys only played during spare time, they learnt to pack shelves and sweep floors and absorbed the rudiments of running a grocery business.

The Chen children grew up seeing parents Vincent and Gloria Chen working hard at their business while ensuring that their children got the best education they could afford.

So young Wayne Chen chose to study law in university, thinking it was a career that could serve him well both in Jamaica and overseas if the need arose. But the business-friendly climate of the '80s, plus the lure of something he really understood, changed all that. And the work ethic developed in his formative years behind the shop counter (B.Sc.) helped prepare him for the future.

An avid reader and art collector, writer, gardener and community worker, today Mr. Chen is a father, a husband and a man with a deep social conscience and total commitment to making Jamaica a better place. He shares his 25-year journey in the supermarket business, his views on the Jamaican economy and his political outlook.

Barbara Ellington: Did you ever dream the business would get to the level that Super Plus has today?

Wayne Chen: Yes and no; my plan was always to keep it growing as big as it could get. From we were young we were told we could achieve anything we wanted if we prepared ourselves and were willing to work hard and consistently for a long period of time. I saw that happen enough times to believe it, plus we had the desire to do it. Our parents prepared us well by teaching us the basics of business and we are addicted to learning.

BE: Did you feel pressured into business?

WC: No, it was all voluntary. When I left university with an LL.B., and decided not to go further, my parents were not happy. They wanted us to be professionals, but when they saw that we wanted it they were supportive.

BE: Did you become the chief executive officer by democratic means or seniority?

WC: No, my parents had their own supermarket. My first wife and I had one, then two, and as I was the one driving the process of encouraging my siblings to get into the business, they said if you want to push us you should lead.

BE: Where did the name Super Plus come from?

WC: We operated under different names: starting with Ken Chin's Supermarket, then Ken Chin Supermarket (Successors) sold in 1978; then A&P. The family had planned to retire and emigrate but I refused to go. So my parents said either we all go or we all stay. Then they bought L&M Supermarket in Mandeville in 1980 and when I got married in 1981, I worked and lived there.

A year later, we founded A&P in Christiana. I had no cash but got a line of credit from National Commercial Bank (NCB) with my parents' help. got goods and started business.

We stayed there 14 years till we moved across the road to the new location. In 1985, another supermarket was added, and by 1989 we encouraged my brothers Richard and Charles Chen to return home and and get involved. We bought a supermarket in May Pen and by 1992, we bought the fifth in Santa Cruz, St. Elizabeth.

By this time I thought it crazy to be running five different supermarkets under five different names and not maximising marketing/buying potential. We decided to create a chain and call it Food Plus, but when we tried to register the company, we saw that it was already taken. We went back to the drawing board. Staff were asked for ideas and one day my sister's friend, Lois Smith, said to me, "Doesn't Super Plus sound like a good name?"

It had a nice ring to it and in September 1992, Super Plus was launched with five stores and we have kept adding. Now we have 29 locations with a combination of supermarket, wholesales, convenience stores and we manage several convenience stores for Total gas stations. All eight of us are in the business today.

BE: Is there more scope for the chain to grow in Jamaica or do you have your maximum number of stores?

WC: No, we are not at maximum, we have the number we think we have the management capacity for now but we are building capacity. Part of that is training people, recruiting, putting systems in place, particularly in terms of accounts, to ensure that we can keep good control over all entities. Our projection for optimum number of supermarkets was 45 because when you look at fast-growing urban areas, there is room. The next one is slated to open on March Pen Road in Spanish Town in late July.

BE: Why go there with all the problems that plague the Old Capital? How do you cope in such a community?

WC: Spanish Town has twice the population of Montego Bay. Portmore can take two more branches, and Angels Plaza is open. Our present store is next to the police station but every year we have to factor in at least three days of closure because of violence.

We have been very careful going in there; it was the last big town we entered. There is gang activity, protection rackets and crime in general. It is challenging, but we have to take a stand if everyone keeps cowering, hooliganism will take control, plus we cannot abandon our customers.

BE: Are all stores online and interconnected?

WC: Not all are interconnected; all have Internet access but with the new telecoms development in Jamaica, we see the potential to be there.

BE: Do you have plans to expand in the Caribbean and what about more home stores?

WC: We have had requests but we believe there's a lot more to do in Jamaica. We have small home stores around the island but we tend to keep them within the stores. There are still more to come in Linstead and Portmore.

BE: Tell me about some of the challenges you have faced.

WC: The big challenge is keeping people focused, hard-working and productive when they have their own challenges on the outside. It's a tough business, margins are low, sales are tough and to focus people to work hard for wages just above $3,000 weekly is not easy. We offer an opportunity to grow once you get through our doors. We like to promote from within and staff salary can improve if they are willing to take responsibility and be tough.

BE: How many people do you employ, and is attrition high?

WC: We employ 2,200 group-wide. Attrition is high in certain categories industry-wide. In the United States turnover is 60 per cent yearly. We are nowhere near that; ours is between 10-20 per cent per year in the lower categories. But many of the young people who come to work are not prepared for the world of work.

We have found that staff from the hilly parts of the island have a better work ethic than those from the urban centres and large coastal towns. The steeper the hill, the better the attitude to work. They catch the earliest bus and are waiting at the door when we come to open in the mornings.

But benefits to staff include uniform, health and training, and we subsidise other training courses and pay exam fees.

BE: How difficult has it been to improve customer service relationship in the stores?

WC: It is still a struggle, but we keep trying. At our corporate headquarters, we have a training facility where customer service is the focus, but even with that I am not confident that we are offering the level of service we should. It is first a cultural change. We have to stress that we are not teaching things to make the business better but to make staff better. We emphasise confidence, because when you are confident you do not mind giving service.

BE: You have gone into pharmacies. How many do you have now, how has that part of the business gone and what are opening hours?

WC: We have five now and we plan to open at least three more in coming months. We open up to 10:00 at nights in the Kingston and Spanish Town stores because customers are demanding longer hours. Now we have staggered hours for staff in these stores.

BE: And now, what's your take on the present state of the economy ­ is it as robust and healthy as we are being led to believe?

WC: It has stabilised in a fashion but it has underperformed for a long time, and at a time when the rest of the world is growing. We have made economically imprudent decisions; our financial sector meltdown was the third largest, in terms of percentage of GDP involved, in the last 50 years.

The decade of the '90s was a tremendous boom for the developing world. China has grown by 10 per cent; India grew by seven per cent, and these are developing countries like us, but we have not done likewise. Remittances from the diaspora have become a tremendous welfare payment to Jamaica.

We have a crime problem, but other islands have it too, yet investors are not yet scared away. We will get things together if we respect law and order, fix health care and the country's infrastructure. I mentioned the diaspora. This is another segment of the population that is now returning home and I am wondering why the Jamaican Government does not enter into discussions with the British Government and ask them to allow us to manage the health benefits of these retirees. They could request a lump sum to fix our hospitals, and in exchange we would manage the health benefits of all retirees living here.

BE: How do you see the MoU talks turning out?

WC: It will be difficult to sustain because of the number of variables involved. One is the oil price hike, so electricity and gas will soon follow. The people have been asked to hold strain but that strain must have sustainable dividends. While it is a good thing, there must be mutual benefits and sacrifice.

BE: With all the projected price increases, how will it affect Super Plus?

WC: We have held prices for some time now, margins have been held low. For over seven years the rate of increase in food prices in Jamaica has been lower than the rate of inflation (Economic and Social Survey). In real terms now, food, apart from local produce, is cheaper than it has ever been. So some increases could be imminent.

BE: Over the years you built a reputation for having the lowest prices, but in recent times I have heard people say that is no longer the case at Super Plus.

WC: It's not that we don't have low prices, but the competition is high now and they have copied our formula, so while we don't have the lowest price on every item, we can give you many things cheaper. And if you shop selectively throughout our stores, you can come out with the cheapest basket. But what we are doing now is making the shopping experience and environment more pleasant.

BE: What about low points?

WC: We have had low points, such as the demonstrations in Mandeville earlier this year. That incident ran counter to what we believe in and what we thought we were doing. But it woke us up to the fact that you cannot be complacent.

In the last few weeks we have been consolidating operations and tightening up management from the centre to ensure that standards of behaviour and practice we believe should be the hallmark of this organisation are practised consistently throughout the entire organisation. It is a large organisation of 2,200 people operating out of 42 locations. At the best of times it's a difficult thing to run. At the worst of times you are reminded that it has to be run properly.

BE: If you were to give advice to a young entrepreneur going into business now, what three things would you tell him/her?

WC: The first thing is that you don't just see someone in a business and copy everything they do, copy their attitude. Be positive, hungry to learn, understand what customers want and how you can fulfil those wants. Be hungry to learn, work consistently over a long period of time, be willing to take setbacks because you won't win every day. The race is for those who get up when knocked down.

Second, pick a field with a great demand, learn all you can about it and come up with a sound plan that has been stress tested. Ask knowledgeable people and don't be afraid of criticism. Take advice and listen to your potential market; the worst thing to do is think you have all the answers.

Third, stick to the plan you have come up with.

BE: I don't get that impression, but do you all as siblings of Michael Lee Chin ever have the feeling of living in his shadow?

WC: Not at all, plus we could not stay here and outdo him; some of us made the decision to stay here and he made his to go. It might sound odd, but we have never measured our success on how big or small our business is; it's like an experiment that keeps growing. The real satisfaction is making a difference in the lives of the communities we are in. It's never about being more or less than each other. We are all siblings raised by loving parents who taught us to love each other.

BE: Are you grooming your children to take over?

WC: Not at all. One is helping out but they are not going to be pressured to come into it. Children must go out and find their way, because you work hard for them to have the freedom of choice.

BE: What about your political future, will you do that again?

WC: Representative politics is too restrictive; whatever you do you get tainted in politics. Maybe I am running from my national responsibility but there is a lot of good you can do without representing a constituency. At the same time, never say never.