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When Jinnie got to the TT SuperBurgers offices on Monday morning, the first thing she noticed was both Belinda and Brian’s cars in the Directors’ car park. Jinnie headed up to her office and had hardly sat down when Janet came in with her regular mug of coffee. She said, “I take it that was your twins on the TV yesterday, you must be very proud of them, they were absolutely adorable, so natural and well spoken.” “What mother isn’t proud of her children,” replied Jinnie. “But they were amazing,” said Janet, “it was all over the internet, people saying how good they were, they were the highlight of the programme. Especially when they were called in for their lunch and were so polite to the interviewer. People were asking who they were, but no one let on.”
The next into her office was Belinda, who was carrying a mug of coffee and sat down saying, “I thought my godchildren were just fantastic on the TV yesterday. Melissa phoned me during the first interview and asked if it was them, she was saying how grown up they were and how cute they were in their matching anoraks and bobble hats. And the internet went crazy, everyone trying to find out who they were.” “I hope you didn’t enlighten them,” said Jinnie. “Of course not,” replied Belinda, “your privacy is important. But that’s not why I popped in to see you. I have an appointment later in the HQ of a big supermarket in Cheshunt, they are looking at a phased refurbishment of their whole building. This is only an initial look, and I think I am up against some of the London big boys, you know, the ones who aren’t interested if the job is under a million.”
“I am meeting Andrew and Willow there at two,” said Belinda. “They are looking at a couple of possible new SuperBurgers this morning.” “How’s that contract going?” asked Jinnie. “Really well,” replied Belinda, “we are about three quarters through the restaurants and are now getting a steady stream of new restaurants to convert and fit out. They have got into the habit of getting us to have a look and give them an idea of the cost and practicality of the new branch before they acquire the building. It seems to be working really well, and I reckon we are getting about three new restaurants a month. I don’t know how long before the country can’t support any more branches.” “Well, speaking with my SuperBurger hat on,” said Jinnie, “I will be pushing them to keep expanding in the UK and abroad. We only have a few branches in Northern Ireland and that could take a lot more, and I see the Republic as a big market. We are already looking at Trattoria Trevi there and I can’t see us not putting branches of all our other outlets there, particularly Aunty JoJo’s.”
“Talking of Aunty JoJo’s,” said Belinda, “that’s why I wanted to talk to you. We are going mad fitting out new branches in Trinidad, Jamaica, Canada and the UK. But I really wanted to ask about Slovenia, do you expect to expand it quickly there?” “I think so,” said Jinnie, “Brooke is out there right now looking at potential opportunities with Clive. As you know, the branches we have out there are co-located with SuperBurger and it seems to work in that market.” “The reason I ask,” continued Belinda, “is that the owner of the fit-out company we have been using has approached me about buying them. He wants out as he wants to retire, so he has offered me first refusal. It’s a decent price and he has other contracts, but if the company is going to open more branches, I’d be interested.” “Well, if Wright Refurbishment has the funds, I suggest you buy them,” said Jinnie. “It’s worked before. Anyway, I have been thinking about expanding more in Europe and the next country I would like to dip a toe into is either Austria or Croatia, or maybe both, and they border Slovenia.”
“OK,” said Belinda, “I think that’s made my mind up and I will have to fly out to Slovenia. The only problem is I think you need a Slovenian partner.” “You do,” said Jinnie, “but they only have to have a very small percentage. Why don’t you talk to my friend, she is the Slovenian minority shareholder for the Aunty JoJo’s and SuperBurger local companies, I’ll give you her number.” Belinda said, “Molly told me you had invited her and the family over for a couple of weeks at Easter. I’d love for them to come and meet my family, we have chatted about them so many times when we have been in Ottawa, how about I organise a big barbecue. Brian is a dab hand on the big gas one we have on the patio. We have an awning over the patio, for if it is damp, and if it is really cold or wet he can cook under cover and we can eat indoors. If you bring all the family, don’t forget Izzy and perhaps her hero boyfriend, I’ll round up my daughters and the grandchildren, they can chat in Italian or French or maybe even English and I am certain they will love the peacocks and the woods.”
“That sounds marvellous,” replied Jinnie, “the twins love a burger or a hot dog.” Belinda laughed and said, “I was thinking about steaks, lamb chops, salad and jacket potatoes. But now you mention it, I suspect the grandchildren would prefer a burger in a bun. Now, how does Easter Saturday suit?” “It’s pretty good,” said Jinnie, “we intend doing all the tourist things, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, a trip to Greenwich and the Cutty Sark, Harry Potter World, the Houses of Parliament, Dad and Sir Nigel can get them in, even Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard, a couple of museums, the War Museum and the Science Museum. Your house and garden will give them a break.” “Excellent,” said Belinda, “that’s a date then. I’ll sort out times with you once I have got the family sorted.”
Jinnie settled into her paperwork while waiting for Alberto to arrive. He was still at the original Trattoria Trevi till late most nights, and no matter how many times Jinnie told him it was not necessary, he was chairman of a vast international company now, and he had employed a top manager. Alberto’s stock answer was “But it’s my baby, I like keeping my eye on it.” Alberto arrived just before noon and Jinnie decided to tackle him immediately. She picked up a bottle of the Merlot she had borrowed from Sir Nigel, a couple of glasses, and headed into Alberto’s office. She sat down and, without saying anything, poured some wine and handed him the glass saying, “Please try this.” Alberto swirled the contents of the glass round and round a few times before holding the wine up to the light saying, “Nice legs, nice colour,” finally he sniffed the wine, “and a nice nose.”
Alberto then said, “I suppose I better try the wine,” took a sip of it and savoured it. “That’s pretty good,” he continued and took a bigger sip. “I’m not a wine expert, but I would be happy to drink a bottle of that, where did you get it?” “Sir Nigel found it in a local off licence while looking for a nice red to have with our lunchtime roast beef,” replied Jinnie. “I thought it was delicious and a bargain at £18 a bottle for a case, Sir Nigel was sending his driver to get 3 cases this morning, 2 more for him and one for me.” Alberto said to Jinnie, “Really! Pour out another glass and hide the bottle while I call our Head of Wine Procurement in to give me his opinion.” Jinnie poured a glass and tucked the bottle out of sight down the side of Alberto’s desk. Alberto dialled an internal number and said, “Hello Pepe, would you mind coming up and joining me in my office, I’ve got a wine I’d like your opinion on.” Turning back to Jinnie he said, “Pepe has an amazing palate, I respect his opinion when it comes to wine.”
Pepe joined them, was introduced to Jinnie, and handed the glass she had poured. Like Alberto before him, he first sniffed the wine, saying, “A very pleasant nose, and a lovely colour.” Swirling the wine in the glass he said, “It looks good, nice legs.” Then he sampled it and said, “Nice, clearly a Merlot, my guess is French estate bottled. I get blackberries, along with some earthy overtones like vanilla, clove and mocha. It’s not too dry. I rather like it, but it’s not a wine I can put a name to, but my guess is this would wholesale for at least £30 a bottle.” “Thank you, Pepe, what would you say if I told you it is currently retailing at £20 a bottle or £18 for a case?” said Jinnie. “Where can I get some?” replied Pepe. “That is a real bargain. If we could get this in bulk, I would happily put it on the TT wine list. We could put a big mark-up at £18 a bottle.”
Jinnie took the rest of the bottle back into her office and re-corked it, thinking ‘That will do with tonight’s cottage pie.’ She decided to have a look at the cash in the various divisional and head office accounts, she was thinking about buying the vineyard in France, she had no idea how much it might cost. As had been common throughout the businesses, each had trading accounts which had a set level, and anything above it was scraped into a savings account every evening after close of business. The savings accounts also had a fixed level above which they were scraped into divisional accounts. It was these divisional accounts that Jinnie used SAP to check.
Jinnie jotted down the 5 divisional accounts’ totals and added in the head office account. She added them up and came up with over £25 million. Looking at the numbers, she was sure something was wrong with her calculations, so she asked Brian to have a look at what she was doing. Brian had a quick look and explained that yes, there was currently that sum in the accounts, but what she was missing was how much was already committed to various projects currently in build or committed to, tax liabilities, dividends and reserves. For example, over a million was currently committed to refurbishing the new Ennios London Heathrow that they had purchased but were about to start a complete refurbishment of.
Brian tapped on the keys of Jinnie’s PC and eventually said, “I reckon that nearly £15 million is committed elsewhere, so we have around £10 million in cash immediately available for whatever you are thinking of now.” “That should be more than enough,” said Jinnie, “I’m thinking of buying our own vineyard so we can have our own brand house wine.” “Anywhere in mind?” asked Brian. “Well yes,” replied Jinnie. Pulling the bottle up from the side of her desk she said, “Whoever makes this wine. We are busy trying to find the estate at the moment. Why don’t you try it?”
Jinnie poured a small glass and handed it over. Brian sniffed it and said, “I like that, what is it? It’s a nice dark ruby red, is it a Shiraz or Merlot?” “It’s a Merlot,” answered Jinnie. “Not a really expensive one but not a cheap one either.” Brian tried the wine, taking a small sip before a bigger one. “That’s not bad at all,” he said. “I could easily drink that with a steak or roast dinner. Now tell me how much it costs.” Jinnie smiled and said, “Well, that bottle cost £18 in an off licence, so if we could buy in bulk from the estate we could avoid the wholesale and retail mark-ups. But if it was our estate, we could really sell it at a big mark-up. Of course, we would have shipping and perhaps storage costs, but if we were to offer that as our House Red at Trattoria Trevi and Sybaritic, I’m sure it would sell at a good profit.”
***
Brian had gone back to his office and Jinnie had gone back to her PC and the monthly divisional reports. She had learned that the Fast Food division was opening Aunty JoJo’s branches quickly in Jamaica and had opened the first three branches outside the Kingston area. In the UK they were opening about four full branches a month, but the surprise was the success of the takeaway-only branches on the South Coast, there were now 25 of these and all but one was trading profitably. Brooke reported that one was struggling and when she had visited she realised it was in a Muslim area and recommended its closure.
The Trattoria Trevi division was still trading very profitably and still expanding; as she had written the report to the board, this was not news to Jinnie. She had also suggested they should be looking to expand into Europe by opening in some of the big cities in Italy, France and Spain. She intended to bring the idea up at the next board meeting, but not before they discussed the wine idea. Jinnie had just made up her mind that she preferred Rome as the first European mainland branch when her phone rang. Jinnie read ‘Trevor’ from the display and said, “Hello Trevor, you are up early this morning, it must be important.” “Hi Jinnie, yes it is. When we last spoke you said you were on the lookout for hotels to expand the Ennios brand, is that still the case?” “It is,” replied Jinnie, “the chain is well liked but it is small. We have two hotels on the English South Coast, the one in Antigua, and we have recently acquired one near Heathrow Airport, but it is going to need a lot of refurbishments to bring it up to Ennios level.”
“I was talking to one of our regular customers last night,” said Trevor, “he manages a 5-star resort hotel in St James near Sandy Bay, and he was telling me that the owner was going to put it up for sale together with another one the group owns in Marigot Bay, St Lucia. He wants to sell them as going concerns because he wants to open a new super resort in the US Virgin Islands. As an American it’s easy for him to do. I always pull Alex’s leg when he comes here to eat because his hotel has a decent restaurant, but he says the Continental is so much better. He invited me to dinner there one evening and he is right, the hotel is super, but the restaurant isn’t. I could put it right in a week.”
“Do you know the asking price?” asked Jinnie. “No,” said Trevor, “but Alex says the owner is in a hurry to sell as he needs money for the new venture. I really like the hotel on St James Beach, and it is busy, but I don’t know anything about the one in St Lucia. Alex says it is good but suffers the same restaurant problems. He says he has no control over the restaurant, it has a separate manager.” “OK,” said Jinnie, “I need to get Rick out to have a look at the two hotels as soon as possible. I also want your view of the St Lucia restaurant, so you and Rick can nip over to St Lucia together. While I think about it, can you speak to Monica, she can have a look at the coffee shops or whatever they offer in the reception. Can you put Michael on standby in case we need to get legal paperwork done quickly? Give me the name of the owners and I’ll deal with them with Brian.”
These were the days Jinnie lived for, two new projects coming out of the blue on the same day, and visitors arriving at the weekend. She was going to be busy. Seeing Brian out in the main office, she called him in and explained the call from Trevor. Brian said, “I know the main board’s strategic plan is to grow the Hotels division, and this sounds like a good opportunity. We chatted earlier about cash in hand, we’ll have to bed down the costs of both projects quickly and decide if we can afford to run with both. If we can’t, we will have to decide which one to go with.” Jinnie replied, “My gut feel is that we are going to be able to afford both. Pepe, who handles all the group wine purchasing, is looking at either buying the wine directly from the wholesaler or the vineyard. Once we have a handle on the winemaker, I will talk to them about buying them or at worst buying all their production. It’s France so I can talk to them in their own language. Would you like to join me?”
“Yes please,” said Brian, “I can speak a bit of French, I am by no means fluent, but I can understand it and read it. The army gave me lessons when I was in the Paras before my accident. We were down to be one of the first regiments into France many years before it happened. To be able to talk to the resistance was considered essential. But as you know, I was never able to use it.” “I already have the name and phone number of the man who has the majority holding in the hotel group, I understand they are based in Fort Lauderdale which makes them 5 hours behind us,” said Jinnie. “I know the American working day usually starts at 08:00, but that means it is too early to phone him at the moment. I think I would like to call about 14:00 our time. Why don’t you join me then. I’ll brief Alberto and we can use the boardroom and put the call on the loudspeaker. We can always write notes to each other.”
***
At 2 p.m. sharp the three Directors gathered in the boardroom and Brian switched on the white noise generator and Alberto slid the notice on the door to say ‘Private Meeting in Progress – Do Not Enter.’ They agreed that Jinnie would lead the discussion with backup from Alberto. Brian would sit quietly in the background and use his iPad to look at anything necessary and feed them notes. Before Jinnie dialled the number Brian said, “I did a bit of research on the internet before lunch, and I read that Apex Hotels Inc. are short of just over $3.25 million on their luxury resort development on Saint Thomas. The article says they are investigating various ways of raising the capital, via a loan, a share issue or selling off one or two properties that are not considered ‘core’. The article says ‘core’ are properties on the US mainland, Puerto Rico and Hawaii.” “So that fits in pretty much with what Trevor was told,” said Jinnie.
Jinnie dialled the number that Trevor had supplied, and they all listened as the US ring tone came through the speakers. On the third ring a female voice said, “Good morning, Apex Hotels, you are through to the President’s office, how can I help you?” Jinnie said, “Good morning, my name is Dame Jinnie De Luca and I am the Chief Operating Officer of the British company TT SuperBurger. I am currently in our British HQ with the company Chairman Alberto Conti, and I wonder if it would be possible to speak to Mr Peterson. We have a proposal to put to him.” “Please hold,” said the voice.
A minute passed and the voice was back. “Mr Peterson says he doesn’t know you or your company, so he won’t be taking your call. If you would like to put your proposal in writing he might consider it.” Jinnie replied, “I would rather speak to Mr Peterson personally, so please tell him that Mr Conti and myself will be available for the next two hours if he would like to phone us back. I won’t give you my phone number, he would only think I was a scammer. Please tell him he can get someone to check our website out. He will find we are a privately owned British company with various divisions. We have high-class restaurants in the UK, Ireland, the Caribbean and Canada. We have a fast food division that has fried chicken restaurants and takeaways, sandwich shops and mid-range restaurants in the UK, Ireland, the Caribbean and Canada. We have a burger chain which now operates nearly 1,000 outlets in the UK and Ireland.”
“Our fourth division operates dark kitchens in the UK, Ireland and the Caribbean. Our fifth division does commercial fit-out and refurbishment in the UK, Caribbean and Canada, for both ourselves and third parties. Finally, our sixth division, which is perhaps the most relevant to this proposal, is Ennios Hotels, and currently it’s quite small with three hotels, two on the Channel Coast of England and one in Antigua. We have recently acquired a fourth hotel adjacent to London’s Heathrow Airport and we intend to keep growing the chain in the UK and in the Caribbean. If he decides he would like to talk, the head office number is on the website. I will tell the receptionist to put his call through to me.”
Jinnie said to the other two Directors, “I bet he phones back within the hour. Let’s get Janet to bring us a mug of Alberto’s coffee while we wait.” “I think you are right,” said Alberto, “you will have whetted his appetite if that secretary relays your message accurately.” “I think she will,” said Jinnie, “I’m certain she will have been scribbling away in her best shorthand. Either that or he was listening in on his extension.” “I’ll go for listening in,” said Brian, “and I bet he is already on our website and using Google to find out as much as he can about us and checking our financial returns out on gov.com. If he subscribes to Dun & Bradstreet he’ll have their report as well. We come up spotless on all of them and he’ll see we turned over nearly £500 million last year with a good profit. He’ll be back.”
It was just after 3:00 p.m. when the extension in the boardroom rang. Jinnie answered and the receptionist said, “Good afternoon Dame Jinnie, I have Hudson Peterson III on the line for you.” Jinnie said, “Thank you Sarah, will you put him through please.” There were a couple of clicks, and an American voice said, “Hello, am I through to Dame Jinnie De Luca?” “Speaking,” said Jinnie, “I take it that I’m speaking to Mr Peterson from Apex Hotels.” “You are,” said Peterson, “I believe you have a proposal you wish to put to me.”
“Yes Mr Peterson,” said Jinnie, “I understand you wish to dispose of two of your chain of hotels, the Apex St James Bay in Barbados and the Apex Marigot Bay, St Lucia. Well, we are willing to consider taking them off your hands.” “What makes you think that they are for sale?” said Peterson. Jinnie laughed and said, “I don’t have time to mess about Mr Peterson. It is common knowledge in the hotel world that you are short of funds for your new resort development in St Thomas and wish to sell those two hotels. Now, depending on the price and us being able to complete due diligence on the two hotels, we might be willing to buy them. I believe my inspection team are ready to go into St James Bay tomorrow and Marigot Bay the day after.”
“Really,” said Peterson. “Yes,” said Jinnie, “I would also need you to open up the books for those two hotels to my Financial Director who can fly out to Miami ASAP. There are at least four nonstop flights a day so I’m sure we can get him out fast. Now the big question is how much are you asking, and does it match my team’s valuation once we’ve had a look at the hotels and the books.” “OK,” said Peterson, “I admit I am looking for a buyer. We have the St James at $2,000,000 and the Marigot Bay at $1,500,000 so that’s $3,500,000 the pair.”
Brian showed Jinnie a page torn from his pad where he had written ‘$3,500,000 = £2,667,378 offer £2,480,000 ($3,254,129).’ Jinnie said, “I will make a one-off offer of £2,480,000, that’s a touch more than you need to finish St Thomas. That is subject to our inspection team saying OK to the hotels and the books.” The clacking of a keyboard came over the loudspeakers and finally Peterson said, “I think I can accept that offer.” “Excellent,” replied Jinnie, “I will have a small team at the Apex St James tomorrow and the Apex Marigot Bay the day after. My Finance Director and an accountant will endeavour to be on one of tomorrow’s flights to Miami, from memory they get in about 2 in the afternoon. I’ll give Brian your number and he can ring you when he arrives. I suspect he won’t want to start work immediately, the day after will be soon enough.”
***
As she drove round the M25 to Heathrow Jinnie listened to the radio. She had been trying to find a station that she could listen to and not shout at too often because the presenter was either woke or a socialist. At one time she had liked the news on BBC Radio 4 but they had started to annoy her, so she had tried Radio 5 but that had been even worse. Then she had tried LBC, and when she drove around the motorway to Crawley early in the morning the presenter was just tolerable. So, she had left the radio tuned in to the station, and getting in the car in the middle of the morning she had been greeted by someone she considered a raging lefty. All she wanted was the occasional news bulletin and a sensible phone-in. She had recently settled on Talk Radio and the presenters had so far proven to be more to her taste.
The discussion that Saturday morning was on the growing war between Russia and Germany. It still seemed, from satellite photos, that the front lines were pretty stable, but each side was claiming to be winning and destroying the other’s troops and equipment on a huge scale. Jinnie listened, intrigued, the general tone of the phone-in was on the side of the Russians who had, like England, been invaded. Many of the callers were mentioning the attempted kidnapping of Sir Nigel and saying it needed revenging.
Jinnie parked in the Terminal 2 short-term car park and headed for arrivals. The twins had been disappointed not to be going to the airport to meet the Baker family, but Jinnie had patiently explained that the Lexus was a six-seater and there were five Bakers and her, so there would be no room for them on the journey home. They reluctantly accepted the situation and stayed at home with Izzy, Paolo and Sir Nigel, who they told what was happening, who was coming and how he would like them.
Jinnie checked the arrivals board and found the Air Canada overnight flight from Montreal had landed, but the sign didn’t yet say “Baggage in Hall”. So, with one eye on the board, she wandered over to WHSmith’s to get a copy of the Daily Telegraph. Next door was a chain takeaway coffee shop that also sold sandwiches, rolls, cakes and snacks. But what interested Jinnie was the sign that said, “Sorry, this branch is closing due to the lease expiring.”
Jinnie walked back to the barrier by the doors where passengers came out of Customs and pulled out her phone. The arrivals board suddenly changed to “Baggage in Hall”, and Jinnie hit the speed dial number for Brooke while watching for the Bakers to come out from Customs. Brooke answered almost immediately, saying, “Good morning Jinnie, I guess it is important for you to be calling me this early on a Saturday morning.” Jinnie chuckled and replied, “You know me too well. I’m at Heathrow Terminal 2 Arrivals to meet Jack, Molly and the kids off the redeye from Montreal. I have just spotted an opportunity. There is a Caffè Nero on the landside that is closing due to its lease expiring. It was doing decent business, so I reckon it would make a pretty good artisan sandwich shop. There is no room for sit-down so it’s takeaway only.”
“Right,” said Brooke, “I’m on it. We’ve been trying to get into Heathrow for a while. As you know, we are in Gatwick North and South Terminals, both landside and airside. I’m willing to overpay to get a foot in the door at Heathrow. There are four terminals so that could be at least eight outlets. I know some people at the owners so I’m going to talk to them if I can raise them at the weekend. I intend to get over to Heathrow ASAP for a look myself. I’m not leaving this one to Leah.”
Ava and Logan led the Baker family through the self-opening door, followed by Jack and Molly and Liam bringing up the rear. The children all had backpacks, while Molly had a cabin bag, and Jack was pushing an airport trolley piled high with suitcases. Jinnie caught their attention by waving and Ava and Logan hurried over to say hello. After greeting them all, Jinnie led them to the Lexus in the short-term car park. She unlocked it as she approached and Jack said, “Nice, I thought Brit drove small cars.” Jinnie said, “Not all of us,” and Liam said, “It’s a Lexus, but I’ve never seen this model at home.” Jinnie replied saying, “I’m pretty sure this model is not sold in North America. I needed something big to be able to carry three adults, the twins and all our baggage when we go anywhere.” Ava, who was already in the back, said, “It’s even got TV in the back.”
As they cruised round the M25, the children searched the TV channels for some that suited them all before settling on a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Jack and Molly chatted to Jinnie explaining that Jack had been travelling around Canada so much that he had accrued a load of Air Canada points and had traded them in for business class tickets. This had allowed them to have lie-flat seats and they had all slept. Jinnie said, “That’s good because you won’t credit what we have arranged for you in the next two weeks. It starts with dinner at Trattoria Trevi tonight and there will be a few directors and their wives there. You know a few but you need to meet some more. Then we are going to see a load of tourist sites, have a boat trip on the Thames, go to Chessington World of Adventure, see the changing of the Guard, the Crown Jewels and visit Harry Potter World, the twins are really looking forward to that.”
“Are we really going to see Harry Potter World?” asked Liam. “I’ve seen the films and started reading the books.” “Yes,” said Jinnie, “I understand you can have a ‘butter beer’, walk through the Leaky Cauldron into Diagon Alley and even go into Olivanders and buy a magic wand.” “That’s cool,” said Liam.
In Chapter 15 – The Bakers enjoy their holiday
© WorthingGooner 2025
