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Dame Jinnie De Luca strolled across the departure hall at Heathrow Terminal 5, looking for the check-in desk for her BA flight to Montreal. She was flying to Ottawa to attend her first board meeting of Bearcat Foods Inc., but, frustratingly, there were no direct flights to Ottawa from the UK. The choice was to fly to Montreal, short of her destination, and get a connecting flight on to Ottawa, or fly past Ottawa to Toronto and get a connection back. She had chosen to fly British Airways to Montreal because it was slightly faster, she could depart Heathrow at lunchtime, and she also knew she would stand an excellent chance of being upgraded because of the SIS marker on her passport. The Trattoria Trevi travel department had got her one of the few remaining Business Class tickets on the flight and had sorted out a visa, as her meeting was considered work. Jinnie was confident that as soon as the ground stewardess scanned her passport, she would be automatically upgraded to First Class on the B787-10 used on the route.
Jinnie spotted the check-in desk numbers and rows on the big overhead screen and headed for it. There was a long queue at Economy, a much shorter queue at Premium Economy, and only one person at the pair of Business Class check-in desks, with no one at all at the First Class desk. The ground steward at the tail of the snaking queue to Economy was checking everyone’s ticket and directed Jinnie to the Business Class check-in lane, avoiding the queues. Jinnie popped her suitcase onto the scales section of the conveyor belt and handed her passport and ticket to the girl behind the desk.
The girl perused Jinnie’s ticket and then scanned her passport. Jinnie watched carefully, as she had been assured that BA was now using a similar system to Virgin Airways to identify SIS personnel and automatically upgrade them. The ground stewardess did a double take at the message that had popped up on her screen and immediately called over her supervisor. He read the on-screen message and told the girl to take a five-minute break while he handled this passenger.
The supervisor said, “Good morning, Dame Jinnie. I must apologise for the slight hold-up. We have introduced a new system where, when particular passports are scanned, the computer automatically issues an upgrade where available. For security reasons, which I’m sure you understand, the check-in person gets an on-screen message of the upgrade and is instructed to immediately call a supervisor. This is because the ground stewards aren’t told what is happening—only a few supervisors know. We only have two other passengers booked in First Class on this flight, so I can offer you a choice of seat. How about 2A, which is a window seat?” “That will suit me perfectly,” replied Jinnie.
Jinnie was directed to the express lane through security and told she could choose which First Class lounge facility she would like to use: either the Galleries Lounge or the Concorde Room. The supervisor had suggested that the Concorde Room was probably the most exclusive, as it was for BA First Class passengers only, while the Galleries accepted their Oneworld Alliance executive passengers. Jinnie remembered the Concorde Room from a flight to Barbados with the family and headed there. She had decided on a snack lunch, planning to eat later on the plane, where she could pick her dining time and menu.
No sooner had Jinnie sat down in one of the comfortable armchairs than a waiter arrived with both food and drink menus. Jinnie selected her favourite Pepsi Max and chose a bowl of wild mushroom soup followed by asparagus with a poached egg, both of which were delicious and perfectly presented. While eating, Jinnie picked up a complimentary copy of The Daily Telegraph and caught up with the latest news on the war between Germany and Russia. As usual, the two countries’ propaganda ministries were both claiming to be winning, but the map and satellite photos from the British and American satellites showed a different story. The front line seemed to have moved in different directions at various points along it. The Russians had pushed the Germans back around 50 kilometres near Moscow, but in other areas, the front line was static, or the Germans had taken ground. With such a long front between the two warring parties, the maps in the paper showed that the current position was about even-Stevens.
Jinnie had just started pondering whether the two had fought themselves to a standstill when her flight was called, and she headed off to board the aircraft. Not having flown on a British Airways 787 before, she was surprised to discover that the First Class cabin only consisted of eight seats in two rows of 1-2-1, in what the airline industry had recently started describing as ‘suites’. In fact, it was a little cubicle with a fully reclining seat and a low-level partition. Jinnie settled into her seat and was immediately offered champagne or fruit juice. Jinnie decided on a chilled orange juice, knowing that free alcohol would be available throughout the flight.
***
Having enjoyed a pleasant flight, Jinnie landed in Montreal in the early afternoon, having put her watch back five hours. She quickly passed through immigration and customs before heading to the Business Class lounge to await her internal Air Canada flight on to Ottawa. She had arranged to meet her fellow Bearcat directors, Brooke Wilson and Jack Baker, in the Air Canada Business Class lounge. Brooke had chosen to fly Air Canada from London a couple of days earlier so she could add to her Aeroplan points, in the full knowledge that her Business Class points added considerably to the haul she had already accumulated. She had told Jinnie she would soon have enough points for a holiday flight to the US West Coast, even if it meant having to fly on one of Air Canada’s Star Alliance partners, United Airlines.
Jack and Brooke had been talking to several prospective outlets who had expressed the view that they might like to become Aunty JoJo’s franchisees. In addition, now the Ottawa operation was settled and, according to Brian, making a healthy profit, Jack wanted to open some fully owned outlets in Montreal. As another Bearcat Inc. director, Brian would be at the board meeting, as would Belinda, who had been invited to attend, as one of the items on the agenda was setting up a Construction Division now they were entering a period of rapid expansion. Brian and Belinda were to fly out the next day, just before the board meeting, but Jinnie and Brooke were going to dinner the next day with Jack and Molly. Of course, that also gave Jinnie a little more time to visit the various parts of the expanding Bearcat Foods corporation.
Jinnie spotted Brooke in the not-too-busy Air Canada Business Class lounge and joined her and Jack. Unlike in the Concorde Room earlier, it took a few minutes to attract the attention of a waiter for a cup of indifferent coffee. Not for the first time, Jinnie pondered the need for a TT SuperBurger (Group) mass catering division—one that could prepare and sell better food and drink to the likes of stadiums, hospitals, airport lounges and maybe even schools, colleges and universities. Her thoughts were cut short by Jack, who pointed out that their boarding gate had just come up on the departure screen. The wait for the onward flight had not been too long, and they were soon boarded in Business Class for the 48-minute flight to Ottawa. Brooke was now familiar with Air Canada and had ensured that they had seats together in the small Business Class section of the Airbus A220-300. This was a new aircraft type for Jinnie, and she was impressed by the smart, modern, spacious cabin of the Canadian-built plane.
Jack had left his car at Ottawa’s small international airport, so he was able to drop off Jinnie and Brooke at the Maddison Bonvoy in downtown Ottawa. Brooke had said she recommended the hotel, having stayed there several times, as it was within easy walking distance of the Bearcat offices. Jinnie was a little sceptical, as the Maddison was a partner in the Air Canada Aeroplan points scheme. However, Jinnie was quite happy when she saw her room—it was on the 20th floor of the 26-storey hotel and was an executive corner room with a balcony offering extensive views over the city. It was quite luxurious, but not quite to the TT Ennios standard. Still, she hadn’t tried the restaurant yet.
***
The day after they arrived in Ottawa, Brooke walked the short distance to the Bearcat Foods office for a meeting with Jack and a KFC licensee who was exploring moving his five outlets in Toronto to Aunty JoJo’s franchises. Jack had told Jinnie and Brooke about this development when they had been together the previous day. He had explained that he rather liked the idea of expanding into a third city, but at 450 km, it was a bit too far away from the Ottawa chicken processing plant to be supplied by truck. He wanted to explore the idea but wasn’t sure of the economics of setting up some sort of local distribution operation for only five outlets.
Jinnie and Brooke had breakfasted together, and Jinnie had picked a three-egg omelette with three fillings from the menu. It was what she considered one of the more ordinary offerings, amongst the pancakes with maple syrup and shrimp Benedict. However, the coffee had been decent, if not very warm. When Brooke had gone, Jinnie waited for Molly to pick her up. She was taking her to see some of the restaurants, both owned and franchised, the processing plant, and finally the offices. Molly arrived shortly after nine, having dropped her children at school.
The first stop was at a Bearcat Foods-owned Aunty JoJo’s. It was still fairly early, but Jinnie was delighted to see a number of people eating breakfast rolls and drinking coffee. Molly explained that on one of her regular visits, Brooke had pointed out that they were missing out on the breakfast market by not opening up until ten o’clock each morning. They had looked at what Canadians ate for breakfast and decided that they weren’t equipped to sell pancakes with maple syrup, but eggs, bacon, sausages and fried potatoes—they could manage, either on a plate or in a roll. They now opened at 07:00 and sold breakfast until 10:00, when they switched to chicken.
Jinnie asked, “Is it popular?” Molly replied, “Judge for yourself. It’s not yet ten, and three-quarters of the tables are occupied—that’s all additional business. We tried it in one restaurant, and within a week we had pushed it to all our owned branches. We told franchisees what we were doing and gave them the option to follow us. After visiting our outlets, every single one did, and none have stopped serving breakfast.”
Jinnie was delighted by how exactly the restaurant design followed the Aunty JoJo’s blueprint—she could be in any branch in the Caribbean or the UK. The only obvious difference was that the prices were in Canadian dollars. “This looks good,” said Jinnie, “and I am delighted to see that we are well ahead on the projected trading and profit.” Molly replied, “That’s true. The 14 original outlets are all well ahead of their trading positions when they were KFCs, and it’s improving weekly.” “How about the franchises?” asked Jinnie. “Well, we don’t get official sales figures from them,” replied Molly. “We just get their licensing fees and sell them chicken and other stuff, but we are now supplying much more than when they opened, so I am confident they are also doing well.”
The next stop was a franchised outlet, where the owner-manager expressed his delight at his growing sales, telling Jinnie how happy he was at leaving KFC and becoming an Aunty JoJo’s outlet. He told her that support from Bearcat was wonderful—they reacted quickly to every request and enquiry. The deliveries were like clockwork, and he just loved the new EPOS system. He was able to set a minimum level of stock, whether it was fries or paper napkins, and the system would automatically order for restocking. Once again, Jinnie was happy. The outlet looked good, and the owner was obviously happy with his investment.
The last stop on the tour was the processing plant. From the outside, it was way bigger than Jinnie had anticipated. Molly explained that when they bought the company, Ottawa Chicken Processors, they had been using about a quarter of the building, but they had now put in more equipment and were up to just under a third. Jinnie asked, “So we own the whole building.” “Yes,” answered Molly, “and Belinda reckoned there is enough ceiling height to put in a mezzanine floor.”
That set Jinnie thinking about how difficult it would be to build a mezzanine over a working processing plant. She knew Belinda had done something similar in a factory in West London, but that hadn’t been while food was being processed underneath—she seemed to remember it had been bicycles. Jinnie was pretty sure that they wouldn’t be allowed to build over a working food plant.
As they walked around, the manager explained that they were expanding so fast they would soon need to expand to half the facility. Jinnie was still struggling with the mezzanine problem when it suddenly struck her—build the mezzanine over the unoccupied two-thirds of the floor area, then install new equipment under it. Finally, move production to the new space, leaving the remaining third out of production while the mezzanine was extended over it. As more production space was required, they could restart production in the unused area under the mezzanine with new equipment and/or recommission the old equipment. The area on the mezzanine could be used for all sorts of things—offices, storage or, if it was designed to be strong enough, more production space. But the key was to build the mezzanine now, before it was needed, and while it wouldn’t be over working plant.
As they drove away, Jinnie mentioned her idea to Molly. She thought for a minute before saying, “If we were to build a mezzanine floor, wouldn’t all that concrete be expensive and messy?” “Well, first, I think it will be much more expensive if we don’t do it now,” replied Jinnie. “Second, I wouldn’t suggest building in concrete. In every dark kitchen we have built, we have used a steel mezzanine. It is much cleaner—all the steelwork is manufactured in a factory off-site, so it is much quicker and easier to build on-site. Everything is prefabricated, including stairs and goods lift shafts, if required. Of course, we will have to look at installing all the services, but Belinda knows all about that. Her company has installed numerous mezzanines in the UK, but I suspect the biggest problem will be finding a suitable Canadian designer, manufacturer and installer.” Belinda and Brian were arriving in Ottawa later that afternoon, and Jinnie decided to discuss the idea with her before the board meeting the next day.
***
The final stop on the tour was at the Bearcat offices. Jinnie was unsurprised to see something rather reminiscent of the DKW offices in Crawley, transposed to a modern downtown Ottawa office building but on a much smaller scale. It was all glass partitions for offices and meeting rooms, with bench desking. There was obviously a raised floor, as the only visible cables came out of ports on the desks and snaked to LCD monitors and phones. In one corner was an area partitioned off with solid walls, a double door and its own entry system, which Jinnie immediately realised was their computer room and link to the group SAP network.
Jack and Brooke were together around a large table in a glazed office and, on seeing Jinnie and Molly, beckoned them over. On joining them, Jack said, “What do you think of our offices? Pretty modern, eh?” Jinnie smiled and replied politely, “They are lovely, Jack—bright, clean and airy, with plenty of room for more expansion. Belinda has done you proud.” A grinning Jack said, “We’ve had a very productive morning. That guy from Toronto is ready to become an addition to the Bearcat/Aunty JoJo’s empire just as soon as we can work out how to supply him. And he tells me several of his fellow KFC franchisees and independents want to join him in becoming Aunty JoJo’s. In fact, he was talking about another ten or twelve restaurants.”
Brooke picked up the tale, saying, “That would mean another 15 or so outlets added to the network. I’m not sure how well the processing plant could handle that without a big expansion. We are on the verge of taking on four franchises and two owned shops in Montreal. That would mean we have 28 restaurants here in Ottawa—half owned and half franchised—with two more owned outlets in build. Add in the four who Jack has signed up as franchisees in Montreal, and that makes 34 Aunty JoJo’s and 20 independents the plant is supplying. And that is without Toronto’s 15.”
Jinnie said, “You must be aware the processing plant manager has been anticipating a jump in restaurants and has expanded capacity. He was telling me this morning that, on current sales, the plant has capacity to handle about 75 shops, so I think that means he has capacity to cover what is being discussed. But if we want to be ready to expand more into Montreal and Toronto, we need a bold plan for the processing plant. I have an idea, but I need to talk to Belinda about its practicality and cost. I was going to talk to her as soon as possible so as to float the idea at tomorrow’s board meeting, but you have rather forced my hand.”
Jinnie explained her mezzanine idea to Jack and Brooke, saying that there seemed to be a window to do this right now. She said that, as yet, she had no proper idea of costs. In her head, she worked in pounds sterling, and she said that in the UK, a steel mezzanine of the size needed to fill the processing plant would cost about £180,000, using the rule of thumb for mezzanines that Belinda had taught her. But this one would have to be constructed in two parts, so she would expect to add another 10% for that. Of course, there would be additional plant to add into that.
Brooke said, “Well, I for one like the idea. We could just expand the plant—in the short term, it would be cheaper—but Jinnie’s plan means we will have ample space for expansion. Going on the basis that a third of the floor area serves 75 restaurants, then the whole floor would serve 225 outlets. Now, some of that floor space is going to be needed for access stairs, legs for the mezzanine, and storage, so let’s say we reduce it to 200 restaurants’ capacity and double that to 400 when we use the mezzanine level. I think we need to consider this right now, as we aren’t going to get another chance to build a mezzanine. But we will need chilled storage in Montreal and Toronto, heavy transport to bulk move produce there, and a local delivery service.”
“We need to look at this carefully,” continued Brooke. “The Ottawa-Gatineau complex is only the sixth-biggest city in Canada. Montreal is three times its size and Toronto five times. I think we should only think of supplying them from our Ottawa plant as a temporary answer until we can establish plants in other cities. For example, Vancouver is huge—2.5 million people—but it is over 4,000 km from here. That’s two days by road, and the quickest route is via several US states. That can’t be serviced from here. I think we should be looking at plants in places like that first. So, my answer is ‘Yes’—let’s build the mezzanine. It will allow us to expand to at least two more cities, and the quicker, the better.”
In Chapter 2 – The Bearcat board meeting
© WorthingGooner 2025
