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Over the next few days, loan staff started to arrive in Tampa as they got their visa applications approved. Jed and Ro arrived two days after Monica had collected her Range Rover and got the company banking sorted out. Like Belinda, they had travelled to Tampa on a direct BA flight from London and had taken over an hour to get to the head of the immigration queue. The CBP officer asked why they were visiting the USA, was it for business or pleasure? Jed had pointed out that he and his wife had an L-1A company transfer visa and they were going to help set up a new business in Florida. Jed was then asked how long he and Ro intended to stay in Florida. Jed explained that his contract was for three years but the L-1A visa was valid for one year, renewable three times, which meant that they could stay for a maximum of four years but had guaranteed jobs to return to after three years and that was their intention.
The CBP officer seemed a little confused, and Jed wondered if he had ever seen an L-1A visa before, but he typed Jed’s name and visa reference into his computer terminal and did a double take when it came up with an answer that seemed to agree with what Jed had told him. The officer’s final question was, “Where will you be staying?” and Jed told him the “Hyatt House Tampa Downtown,” and the officer said, “That is an expensive hotel. Do you have sufficient funds to pay for a stay there?” Jed replied, “The bill is being picked up by my employer, but as soon as we can find a house to lease in Clearwater we will be moving there, and the company will be paying for the lease.” At that point, the CBP officer had given up and stamped the passport and stapled a little white card to the visa page that said entry granted for 12 months from that day’s date and then it would need renewal for a further 12 months.
Ro took on the admin of the group working in the two meeting rooms. The programme was blue tacked on a wall and several actions were struck off in red highlighter to show they had been completed. Nearly everyone had brought a laptop with them. Jed set about linking them together into a rudimentary network, using a high-end gaming computer with extra solid-state storage, cables and adapter, bought at a Walmart computer shop, as a temporary server. He also acquired an A3/A4 laser printer he rigged into the network. When Ro first logged on to the little network she was amazed that it worked; she could message any or all of the little group, save data on her own laptop or save it on the ‘server’. Jed pointed out that there was no connection to the internet and that was probably a good thing as they were trying to work in secret.
Belinda had a copy of the Aunty JoJo’s style book on her laptop and Ro had been told to carry electronic copies of the Canadian and British and Caribbean franchising agreements to Florida on data sticks. Monica had the templates for all the Bearcat (Caribbean) letterheads and documents on her laptop and one of the party soon had them converted into Bearcat (USA) documents; the same happened to the style book and the franchising agreement. Although in the case of the franchising agreement, the lawyer on loan from the U.K. legal department in Potters Bar thought that it would be a good idea to have it seen by the US firm of attorneys they had hired before it was used.
On her fourth full day in Tampa, Monica and Belinda had started the search for office space in the downtown area. They visited five or six commercial ‘realtors’ and been given loads of handouts and offers to view spaces. Over lunch in a diner, Monica and Belinda discussed what they had been shown and told. Some of the places they ruled out immediately, others after a bit of discussion they accepted as possibilities. They had finally boiled down the pile of offices offered to three they would like to view, one of which was the clear favourite. It was the whole of the 9th floor of a 31-storey building and was just about perfect for what they had planned to start with. Of course, the building was air conditioned and had a raised floor, which was what Jed had told them was essential and was in their per square foot target price range. The previous occupants had only recently moved out and the owner had not yet carried out any dilapidations. Consequently, the realtor had told them there were quite a lot of the previous occupants’ partitions still in place including a computer room and some furniture.
***
But it was the news that the occupant of floors 10 and 11 was moving out in 13 months that made Monica think hard. If the business took off as they planned, by then they would be needing more office space. Monica finished her club sandwich and coke and said to Belinda, “I think we should have a proper look at this one, it looks good on paper but until you see it you just don’t know. There might be terrible parking, it could need a lot of work doing, the electrics might need replacing, we might hate it.”
“OK,” said Belinda, “I’ll phone the agent and see if we can have a viewing this afternoon.” The arrangement was made to meet the realtor in the building’s reception at 3 o’clock. Monica said, “I’ve been thinking, Jed and Ro ought to join us. If there is an existing computer room he needs to see it and I value Ro’s opinion.” “So do I,” said Belinda. Monica phoned Ro, who said they would love to join them. Ro looked at the Rivergate Tower on her iPad and said, “We can walk that easily; it’s only four blocks from here and it’s right on the riverside. It looks nice on the computer; we’ll meet you outside.”
Monica and Belinda arrived first and liked what they saw from the outside. The building was cylindrical, like a can standing on its end, and as Ro had said, was on the bank of the Hillsborough River; on the other side were a park and roads, one of which gave access to an underground car park. Through the glass door, the reception area could be seen in an atrium that went up four or five floors. Jed and Ro arrived a few minutes later and stood looking up at the tower. “First impressions,” said Ro, “I like it. The location is terrific, there is a riverside walk, park and there are loads of diners, bars and restaurants in the road we have just walked down. Let’s hope the inside matches the outside.”
The realtor was suddenly approaching them from within the building. Monica asked, “Have you been waiting for us in reception?” “No,” he replied, “I parked in a visitor slot in the sub-basement.” Monica quickly realised he was telling them that the building had an underground car park and asked, “Does underground parking come with the offices?” “Yes,” came the reply, “but only 12 slots with this lease.” Monica did a quick calculation and realised that this was easily sufficient for company executives.
The realtor led them into the building and to the reception, where they were issued with visitor passes, and then to a double bank of lifts. Belinda counted 14 and guessed there would also be a couple of big service lifts somewhere, essential for getting furniture and equipment to offices, which was confirmed by the realtor. Stepping out of the lift on the 9th floor, they were in a large lift lobby. Off the lobby were doors leading to ladies’ and gents’ toilets and two emergency stairwells.
There was a further set of double doors that they went through into the office space. Belinda was already making notes, deciding that the door would need an electronic entry system. The floor was carpet tiles and Jed immediately spotted a generous number of floor boxes, each with power points, computer ports and telephone points. He asked the realtor, “Is the cabling still in place under the floor? If so, what is the category of the Ethernet cabling?” He replied, “I understand the cabling is all still in place and run in cable trays under the floor. A previous viewer had the floor up to check. The cables are all numbered at both ends, but the previous occupants removed all their equipment from the computer room, including the racking, servers, and networking switches. The stuff supplied with the building, like air conditioning, fire alarm and fire extinguisher system, is still there. The cables are Cat 7. But I’m sure you will be looking in there.”
Monica was happy with the general open space, and the existing office partitions were mainly half glazed, but two or three were fully glazed with interstitial blinds. Belinda was busy sketching and measuring but was complaining that the curved outer wall made things difficult to measure. The realtor said, “We have AutoCAD architects’ drawings of the floor. It obviously doesn’t include the existing offices, but I guess you could add them on from the dimensions you are taking.” “Could you email me a copy, please,” said Belinda, handing over a business card. “No problem,” came the reply.
The room the realtor called the ‘boardroom’ was a fair size and, like every other room, was empty but had three floor boxes: two in the middle of the room that could supply an interactive boardroom table and one at an end wall which could supply an interactive storage wall. Belinda whispered to Monica, “We can work with this but everywhere needs a fresh coat of paint and we couldn’t use it until we get furniture and IT sorted. If you are not too fussy about desks, chairs, wardrobes, filing cabinets and tables, we can purchase it from a furniture warehouse. If you want custom built, it may take a while.”
“What if we were to go for the quicker delivery cheaper stuff initially,” said Monica, “get a load of matching stuff for offices and meeting rooms, but go for a better-quality boardroom table, chairs, credenza, interactive storage wall. I want to be able to impress potential franchisees. I want to get up and running as soon as possible with our own offices, but I think we could wait a bit for the better stuff. When the business takes off, we swap out for better stuff. When we come to other floors, we can plan them properly.”
“I think that would work,” replied Belinda. “I suspect the furniture is going to be the most expensive bit of this job. Painting is cheap, the blinds, lighting and carpets look OK. If we need to put up a few more offices, that is reasonably cheap. These are all metal frame plasterboard and glazed panels, and interstitial blinds are inexpensive. Once we have a layout, Jed can work out how many PCs, monitors and printers we need, and the interconnecting cables — they can all be purchased off the shelf.”
In the computer room, Belinda measured up and put notes on her sketch to indicate where things were located. She noted where Jed said he wants computer racking for both servers and storage, where the cable came into the room, where he wanted patch boxes, where the local SAP servers and storage would go, and where the broadband came into the room via a services riser cupboard that also served the floors above. Jed said, “This room is a decent size; my first thoughts are that it would suffice even if we took additional floors. I can easily produce a list of equipment and costs. I will need to get an electrical contractor to do a power calculation to be sure we have enough power on the floor and in the computer room, but the building is fairly new and should have been built with a PC for everyone in mind.”
***
Back in the temporary meeting room/office at the hotel, it was quickly decided that the Rivergate Tower was ideal, and that Monica should make an offer for the lease, and Belinda should get her sketches and the realtor’s AutoCAD drawing over to Andrew ASAP. In the meantime, Belinda started the search for local office refurbishment contractors and found a huge number on the internet. She didn’t want to talk to big companies who had a local branch or a one-man band. She wanted a smallish company who were willing to take on all sorts of work including painting, decorating, ceilings and partitioning. For future jobs, they would need also to manage other contractors such as electrical, including lighting, and air-conditioning. Jed was looking for someone to install computer cabling and equipment; Belinda wondered if the preferred electrical contractor should be the cabling person. In the UK, they were often one and the same.
***
Jinnie was home and watching the early evening TV when her mobile rang. She answered without looking at the display and was somewhat surprised to find herself listening to Monica and Belinda, who were obviously on a speakerphone. Monica was clearly very happy and said, “Hi boss, I just had to ring you as I had to tell someone. It looks like we have found the perfect office. It’s the whole 9th floor of a lovely building in downtown Tampa, right on the riverfront. I went to see it with Belinda, Jed and Ro, and it was a unanimous decision to go for it. The asking price per sq. foot is within our price range, but the man you loaned us from accounts is already in discussions and is sure he can get the price down as the dilapidations haven’t been done. The realtor has sent Belinda drawings of the floor on CAD, and there are lots of existing offices we can use.”
Without pausing, Monica continued, saying, “Belinda says the whole place needs a coat of paint, but in general we only need furniture and computers. The cabling is already in place, there is a computer room, Jed says it’s nearly perfect and he is sorting out a shopping list. We are already drafting adverts for staff, the guy from property says he has found potential Aunty JoJo’s outlets to lease in Tampa and in Miami, so just two more needed. The law firm is setting things up, all the businesses are being registered in Delaware — it is the most business-friendly state. Pierre tells me he has found a warehouse and has passed the details to purchasing. We have found a couple of independent processing plants and are in conversations with them.”
“You seem to be progressing well,” said Jinnie. “Well, we do have one problem,” replied Monica. “The business account is all set up and we have a temporary chequebook, and we will have credit and debit cards as soon as they are printed. But the bank won’t let us open personal accounts until we have an address and a document like a utility letter to prove our addresses.” “Ah,” said Jinnie, “I suggest you keep using your old personal company cards — they are still working — and I will talk to HR and Accounts. I wonder if we can pressurise the bank at this end, we pay them a hell of a lot of money. When will you be starting to look for a property?” “We have already started,” replied Monica. “Ro has been contacting realtors in Clearwater, and we have a number of property sheets we have been going through. I think I might go for an apartment on the seafront with a big balcony and three bedrooms so I can have visitors. I told Patricia she could come and stay once we have got things up and running and I am not rushing around madly. Ro and Jed want a three- or four-bedroom house with a garden and a white picket fence. Ro wants a house cat that she can bring home to England. We are going home hunting on Saturday.”
***
The first thing Jinnie did when she reached Maple House the next morning was to call a meeting with HR, the Head of Accounts, and Brian. She explained the problem being experienced in the US and her temporary solution. HR and Accounts agreed that the temporary solution shouldn’t be a problem, and HR would immediately email Monica, Jed and Ro telling them that all limits on their company debit cards were being lifted until they had their own new cards on their personal accounts. Brian said he would talk to his contact at Barclays and pressure them to open the personal accounts immediately, and that TT SuperBurger would guarantee the accounts until their normal procedures were met — but as they were looking for company-leased homes, that might be a while.
Brian remained in Jinnie’s office when the others left, saying, “Can we have a quick word? Do you intend to fly to Barbados for the official opening of the TT Ennio’s St James?” “I hadn’t thought about it,” said Jinnie. “I know it’s Friday week. But I have been reading the occupancy numbers and it’s between 98 and 100%, so it would be impossible to stay there. That would mean opening Hibiscus Villa just for me for a couple of nights. It’s term time so the kids are out, and Paolo is so busy he can’t get the time off.”
“When I was chatting to Belinda on the phone last night, she said you’d say that,” said Brian. “We agreed there ought to be some Main Board directors there, so she said she could get there easily from Florida, and I should meet her at our house. Why don’t you come over and stay with us? I bet Sir Nigel will go — he loves a good opening party. We have room if he wants to stay with us, but I bet he will stay at Sandy Lane or the O2 Beach Club or one of the other 5-star hotels, especially if he can claim it on expenses.” “I wonder if I could combine it with a chat with Jorja. I meant to talk on the phone now she is doing Monica’s old job, but I haven’t had the opportunity,” said Jinnie, “and I could see how the new catering division is doing. It seems to be off to a flying start. OK, I accept your kind offer. I’ll have a word with that nice young lad in Travel — he is getting to be pretty good at organising my travel.”
Half an hour later, Brian stuck his head round Jinnie’s office door and said, “I’ve spoken to Barclays and my man says he will speak to one of the local directors about opening personal accounts for them all. I explained they all had accounts with Barclays, or in Monica’s case, its Bajan subsidiary. He said that should make them exceptions to the rule.” “Excellent,” replied Jinnie. “I’ll message Monica. She can wake up to a bit of good news.”
***
Brian found that one advantage of flying Virgin with Jinnie was that their Premium Economy tickets were immediately upgraded to Upper Class. Not a word was said, but the girl on the check-in desk simply put Upper Class labels on their luggage and handed them Upper Class boarding cards when she returned their passports, and directed them to the Clubhouse in the Upper Class wing. As he sipped a glass of chilled Champagne, Brian said, “I guess the upgrade is because of your title.”
“No,” replied Jinnie, checking to make sure no one was within hearing distance. “I can tell you because you have signed the Official Secrets Act and are on the SIS reserve list. It’s because, as you know, I’m an active SIS agent. There is an agreement with Virgin and BA that agents get an automatic upgrade if space is available. There is a marker on my passport’s chip. That’s why I fly Virgin in preference to BA. BA’s First Class is a good product, but they don’t have very big First Class cabins. While Upper Class is not quite as good, they have so many more seats that I have never yet failed to be upgraded.”
As always, the plane taxied up to the single-storey airport building in Bridgetown and a bus took them to immigration, where an immigration officer flicked through Jinnie’s passport, noting all the Barbados stamps. He passed it over a reader, checked his computer screen, stamped the passport and said, “Welcome back to Barbados, Dame Jinnie. I hope you enjoy the visit,” before handing her back her passport and calling Brian forward. As always, the Upper Class baggage was up first, and they quickly grabbed their small bags and headed through the green channel. Brian hailed a taxi, and it made its way through the afternoon traffic to the Quarendon’s second home, where the taxi pulled up at the steel gates. Brian used a remote and the gates swung open, allowing the taxi to take them to the front door.
As Brian paid the driver, the door opened to reveal Belinda with a glass in her hand. Jinnie said, “Hello,” and Brian said, “Hi love, isn’t it a bit early to be on the gin and bitter lemon?” Belinda laughed and said, “It’s homemade lemonade — the housekeeper left a big jug in the fridge. It’s refreshing and delicious with a load of ice in it. Would you like one?” “No thanks,” said Brian, “it’s a nice cold bottle of Banks for me; I’ve been thinking about it ever since the plane landed and I stepped out into the afternoon heat.” “How about you?” Belinda asked Jinnie. “I’ll try the lemonade, please,” replied Jinnie.
They walked through to the pool terrace and sat in the shade, with their drinks, chatting. Despite regular reports from Monica, Jinnie was anxious to know, first-hand, how things were going in Florida. Belinda said, “We should be in the new offices on Monday and although they are not up to our normal standards, they are quite nice. We haven’t had time to do them with the normal glass partitions, but the existing half-glazed ones are all right, and we have constructed a big new office for Monica with a meeting table and chairs. Ro has a decent-sized office with views over the river. The furniture was going in yesterday when I flew, so I haven’t seen it. But Monica, Ro and I saw it in the showroom, and it looked pretty good for mass-made stuff. Mind you, it was from the more expensive end of the stuff on sale.”
“I’ll be interested to see some photos,” said Jinnie. “I’m thinking about a quarterly magazine for the staff, to keep people up to date with what’s going on. Most people we employ have no idea what happens in other parts of the company or just how extensive the organisation is. It’s only us group directors that have a good overview of everything that is happening.” “Ro has been taking a load of before and after photos — she told me she always wished she had done it at DKL, but that was a massive change,” replied Belinda. “I think I have some pictures of some of the jobs we have done. If you do go ahead with the magazine, I’ll try to find them.”
Belinda continued, “The furniture supplier was installing the furniture and clearing the packaging, and Jed has the computer supplier and network company in over the weekend to install a raft of desktop computers. They have had the computer room up for a week, and it is talking to the TT SuperBurger network. Jed says that they will be using a Client/Server distributed system. I had no idea what that was, and he said it was a bit like when you call up something on the internet. The local client PC doesn’t need to be powerful, as most of the computing is done on the servers, and all the data is stored there as well. He said it means that you need fast network cables — and they were already there under the floor. You need powerful servers, but only a few, and the desktop PCs can be a lot less powerful, and the user never knows. Mind you, I understand that not every computer programme works with it.”
“That’s interesting,” said Jinnie. “I’ll have to talk to him about it — maybe we can save some money. Our IT spend is horrendous.” “I asked the same thing,” said Belinda, “and he talked about existing systems costing a lot to swap, and how it was more suited to new installations. We have some new people starting on Monday — mainly purchasing, accountants and HR — but Monica has offered more jobs, and some will be starting each week as we build up to opening the first branches.”
“The refurbishment company I used for the offices weren’t at all bad,” said Belinda, “although if one or two of the decorators were mine, they would have been looking for new jobs — they were so slow. It didn’t really matter to me, as we had a fixed-price contract. Anyway, they are working on our branch in Tampa and one in Miami. We are closing on one in Fort Lauderdale as soon as the lawyers get it finalised, and we are talking to a realtor about another in Jacksonville, and Monica says Property think they have identified possible outlets in Orlando and Tallahassee. That would make six owned outlets, but Monica says they are within the budget for four.”
“How about warehouses, processing plant and distribution business?” asked Jinnie. “I’ve not been involved much with them,” replied Belinda, “but I hear we have secured a lease on a dry goods warehouse, and Pierre says he has a couple of warehousemen sorted out. Jed drove over to sort out the computing with people from the computer and networking companies, and I hear it will be ‘another node on the network’ — as will the branches. I heard we had ordered two trucks for chilled deliveries, but where they will be kept, and if we have drivers, I don’t know. I also think we are in discussions with a processing plant to supply our shops and to process our birds when we have acquired our own farms. But Monica is in two minds about whether to try and buy the processing plant now, wait a bit, or build our own.”
“I’ll have a chat with her,” said Jinnie. “Maybe I can set up a conference call with Jack and his processing people.” “I think Monica would like that,” said Belinda. “She has not many people to discuss these strategic things with. Ro, Jed and I don’t have any experience in processing chickens.” Brian asked, “When I last looked, Bearcat was burning through the money. Did Monica indicate if spending was likely to slow down or if she would need more money?” “She did say we have just about finished on the offices and we have now purchased three outlets, a warehouse and two trucks. Our hotel bill is about to come down as we no longer need the meeting rooms, and both Monica and Jed have signed leases on homes. But we still have some biggish bills to come — like the chicken farms and labour.”
Belinda said, “I hope you two don’t mind, but I have booked us a table at Andersons tonight. I can’t be bothered to cook and tomorrow we have a buffet at the hotel. I spoke to Rick earlier today, he tells me that all the current hotel guests are invited, as well as a lot of invited guests. Rick says the numbers are too big for a sit-down meal, hence the buffet. There is a big barbecue and a suckling pig roast.” “That sounds good,” replied Jinnie. “I love a big chunk of suckling pig in a buttered bap.”
***
On arriving at Anderson’s Fish Bar, Jinnie was impressed, it had expanded yet again and was packed. They were led to their table and the manager magically appeared at Jinnie’s shoulder. “Good evening, Dame Jinnie and Mr and Mrs Quarendon. It’s lovely to see you again. I was wondering if we would be seeing you when the grand opening of the Ennios was announced. It really is a huge thing on the island. A new 5-star hotel with a classy restaurant doesn’t open every day. Anderson is not here at the moment, he is at our new restaurant in Saint James, not far from your new hotel. He will be here in an hour or two. But he asked me to say if he misses you, he will see you at the Ennios tomorrow.”
After a sharing platter of fried shrimp, Jinnie chose to have Mahi Mahi for her main course. It was grilled, served with sliced fried potatoes, a fresh salad, and was delicious. Jinnie said, “I’ve been here many times, but I’ve never tried Mahi Mahi before, I’ll definitely be having it again.” Jinnie had just finished her dessert of coconut pie and coconut ice cream when Anderson slipped into the spare seat beside her saying, “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you arrived, but I was at the new restaurant in St James.” “Times must be good,” replied Jinnie. “That must be 3 restaurants now.” “Yes,” said Anderson, “and thanks to you it looks like we will be having two outlets at the Oval, and we also have two delivery kitchens here in Barbados and they are all thriving. The DKL kitchen in Trinidad was a bit slow to take off but is doing OK now.”
“In fact,” Anderson continued, “I am looking at opening a restaurant there. I’ve taken two kitchens in Jamaica. The one in Kingston seems to be doing OK, but it’s early days still and the one in Montego Bay opens in a couple of weeks. If they both take off, I might follow you and open a restaurant or two there.” “Gosh, your business is growing fast,” said Jinnie. “Yes, it has suddenly exploded,” replied Anderson. “I thank God for the day you and your family walked in for lunch. It has all come from that day.”
The four friends sat chatting over coffee as the restaurant thinned out. Eventually, Anderson said, “I don’t know if I should tell you this, but I hear Patrica is thinking about fully retiring. She told Jorja she is getting too old to work even one or two days a week. In some ways, it’s a pity that Monica has gone to Florida, she is a good friend to Monica, like the daughter she never had. But Jorja is an excellent businesswoman, and I reckon Auntie JoJo’s is in good hands. Whether Patrica intends to sell up or to sit on the shares for income, I have no idea. Her 50% of the Caribbean business must be worth a lot of money these days.”
“It is,” said Brian. “If she sold up, she could live in luxury for the rest of her days and not spend it all. It’s a good job there is no capital gains tax on the island. But she could equally live in luxury on the dividend. I wonder if she has thought about how she could become a target for crime if the press reported her selling her shares. It would bring her millions of US dollars.” “She’s been invited to the Ennios opening tomorrow, perhaps she’ll tell you then,” said Anderson.
Back in the sitting room at the Quarendon home, as Brian poured a nightcap, Belinda said, “I’ve been thinking about what Anderson said about Patrica, do you have any idea how much her shares are worth.” Brian shrugged and said, “The problem is it’s a private company so there isn’t a stock market price to base it on, so it’s worth what somebody is willing to pay. One of our rivals like KFC or Popeyes might try to buy in, especially if it became known that Caribbean own the worldwide rights to the name and Fastfood pay a licence for the name. I reckon we are looking at $30 million US.” “Do we have that much cash hanging around to buy her out?” asked Belinda. “No,” said Brian, “we are a bit stretched because of Florida.” Jinnie smiled and said, “The company may be a bit short of cash for that sort of deal, but I keep telling you I can make a director loan.”
In Chapter 22 – Patrica retires
© WorthingGooner 2025
