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On the way home to Worthing with Paolo driving the Lexus, Jinnie had time to think about her promise to be interviewed and concluded that the SIS would probably prefer her to restrict interviews to radio and the press. Exposing her face to TV was probably not a good idea security wise. So, she rang Caroline who said the only TV interview booked so far was on BBC Breakfast and that was only tentative as the programme came from Manchester and the BBC were trying to arrange a slot in their London studios. The twins muttered about wanting to see their mother on TV and Jinnie told them it wasn’t going to happen.
By the time she got home Caroline had lined up Jinnie for interviews with Talk, LBC, Radio 5, Virgin Radio, Times Radio, GB News Radio, and BBC Radio Sussex who were proposing to interview her remotely from the Radio 5 London studio. Caroline explained that Virgin, Talk and Times all operated from the same site in London Bridge, so she had 10 minutes with each and only 10 minutes between those interviews.
***
At 5 past 7 on Monday morning, Jinnie sat opposite Mike Graham in the Talk studio. He introduced her to his audience saying, “This morning I am fortunate to welcome to the studio Dame Jinnie De Luca, the CEO of the TT SuperBurger Group and MD of Trattoria Trevi restaurants. I must admit this is not the first time we have met, and I have enjoyed many meals in your restaurants. Over the weekend your company opened a new Trattoria Trevi restaurant in Worthing and it was an overnight sensation with numerous critics all rating it as wonderful. Tell me the story of this restaurant and what makes it so special.”
Jinnie said, “Good morning Mike, it’s a few years since I was last in the studio with you. If I remember correctly my twins were only babies then and they are seven now. The story of the Trattoria Trevi Worthing is one of lucky chance. A colleague from our fast-food division and I were looking at a site for a new Aunty JoJo’s Chicken Shack, and I had parked on the Worthing promenade. My colleague said it was a waste being at the coast without a walk down the pier, despite it blowing and occasionally raining. So we strolled down the pier where we chanced upon a rather large restaurant that was empty, the previous business having relocated. I thought it may make a nice spot for a Trattoria Trevi.”
Jinnie continued, “We had already bought an ice cream manufacturer in the town and sorted out several other outlets, so I was half looking for a restaurant site. A few days later I came back with our Construction Director, New Business Director, Group Chairman and an agent who showed us the site. We all loved what we saw and a few weeks later the building was ours. We got some magical designs from the Group Design Director’s team, and we now have the most fabulous restaurant in the chain. But it wasn’t until it opened on Saturday evening, and I saw it all lit up, that I realised just how different this restaurant is. The interior is modern, with hints to the past, with an open kitchen. There is an atrium with a large chandelier and a balcony around the inside, of course the views along the coast and out to sea are wonderful. But it’s at night with the lights of Worthing, Shoreham and Brighton all twinkling that it becomes magical. I think it was this, coupled with the fabulous Trattoria Trevi food and service, that so impressed the critics.”
Mike said, “I read a few of the reviews and they all seem to take the food and the service as a given. It seems that it was the location that has impressed everyone. Now I hear you are also opening an Ennios Hotel in Worthing and there is a suggestion of gourmet breaks being on offer.” Jinnie answered, “That is true, we have shaken hands on buying the Ardington Hotel with the intention of refurbishing it a little and adding it to our Ennios chain. The deal is all but complete and it should be ours later this week.”
“But I am intrigued with the idea of gourmet breaks with meals in the Trattoria Trevi and the hotel.” “It was just one of the ideas we tossed around to increase the occupancy rate,” said Jinnie. “You must appreciate that Worthing, although the biggest town in West Sussex, is still basically a seaside resort and hotel relies heavily on the holiday season. We would like to increase our occupancy rate out of season, and this was an idea we came up with. We could offer meals in the Trattoria Trevi, the Ardington Hotel restaurant, Indigo, and we are also in talks with Anderson’s Fish Restaurant to be another destination. Then we are thinking about excursions to our South Downs winery in luxury minibuses.”
“You seem to have some good ideas,” said Mike, “I might have to try a Gourmet Break, I love good food and I tried a bottle of your wine the other evening and it was very good.” “That would be our French estate bottled,” said Jinnie, “our English vines are too young to produce a crop yet. But I’ll send you a bottle when we are in full production in a couple of years.”
“I’ll keep you to that,” said Mike, “but tell me about Anderson’s Fish Restaurant. I understand it is another of your ventures.” “Well yes, I am a major shareholder,” replied Jinnie. “I got tied up with Anderson in the Caribbean, where we have a chain of high-class fish restaurants in Barbados and Jamaica and we decided we wanted to open in the U.K. We have set up a U.K. company with a brilliant young fish chef and we now have two restaurants, one in Worthing and a second in Hastings with a third opening shortly in Dover.”
“Do you consider the new Worthing Trattoria Trevi to be your premier restaurant?” asked Mike. “Not at all,” answered Jinnie. “Our flagship restaurant must still be Potters Bar; it is the original and only restaurant with 2 Michelin Stars. But as I explained, Worthing is different, the setting is just so good. But if it ever got 3 Michelin Stars I might change my mind, however my twins love it and like to watch the fishermen on the pier.”
“You seem to have a few businesses in Worthing,” said Mike. “That’s true,” answered Jinnie. “It started with the ice cream manufacturer and while we were in the town we had a look around for somewhere to get a snack. We came across the ideal site for an Aunty JoJo’s and a SuperBurger, we also sorted out an artisan sandwich shop, Sybaritic, so we are rather invested in the town. Then Sir Nigel Farage took me to a fish restaurant in town and I realised I had found the initial Anderson’s in the U.K. I nearly forgot, we will shortly be opening TT SuperBurger’s latest venture, a Frank’s Ice Cream Parlour on Marine Parade opposite the pier.”
“Thank you Dame Jinnie,” said Mike, “as always you have given me answers to all my questions, and I might just be booking one of your Gourmet Breaks.” “Thank you,” said Jinnie, “I am just delighted that there is so much interest in our new restaurant.” The programme went to an advert break and Jinnie was eased out of the studio and on to her next appointment, a booking with Chris Evans at Virgin Radio who was in another studio on a different floor of the same building and asked very similar questions.
By the time Jinnie got to her seventh and final interview she was getting fed up with answering the same questions repeatedly and hoped for someone to ask something different. From the start this interview was a little different in that the interviewer, Danny Pike, was in a studio in Brighton while she was in a studio in BBC’s Broadcasting House in London. The interview for Radio 5 had been in the same studio with Rachel Burden and Rick Edwards in Media City in Manchester, but at least they had been able to see each other over CCTV.
For the Radio Sussex interview all she had was a disembodied voice in her headphones and, living outside the Radio Sussex broadcasting footprint, she had no idea what Danny Pike was like on air or what he looked like. The interview started off in a similar way to all the previous interviews, but it was almost immediately obvious that he wanted to tilt the interview to suit his Sussex audience. That suited Jinnie, she talked about the Worthing restaurant because that was the whole basis of the interview. But she talked about the group’s presence in Sussex and how various divisions were based in Crawley, including fast food, SuperBurger and construction. How Frank’s Original Ice Cream was manufacturing in both Worthing and Crawley and the first Frank’s Ice Cream Parlour was about to open.
Danny picked up on Jinnie saying it was the first ice cream parlour and asked if more were planned. Jinnie smiled and replied, “Yes, we intend to eventually have a chain in all the busier seaside towns. But at the moment while we only have a single plant making ice cream in Crawley and a second making sorbet in Worthing we don’t have that capacity yet. As it stands Frank’s is only available in West and East Sussex, so too will be our ice cream parlours until we have additional manufacturing lines.”
Jinnie continued, “The Worthing parlour will be ready in about a fortnight and will initially offer 18 flavours and two sorbets. By the school holidays we intend to have more parlours open along the South Coast.” “But will they all be in Sussex?” asked Danny. “Oh yes,” replied Jinnie. “We have already acquired premises in Shoreham, Brighton and Hove, and that is just a start, we are currently looking at Peacehaven and Eastbourne. But we will also be opening in Bognor and Littlehampton. If we don’t have 10 parlours open by the autumn I will be most disappointed.”
***
Jinnie caught the Thameslink train back to Potters Bar where Caroline picked her up at the station and drove her to the office. On the way up the hill to Maple House Caroline talked about how well Jinnie had come over on the radio, had stuck to her brief and just how much free advertising they had got. Jinnie headed for her office where Janet was immediately in with her coffee and asked, “Do you want anything for lunch?” “Yes please,” replied Jinnie, “I think I fancy a chicken salad bap today.”
Whilst eating her lunch, Jinnie casually checked her emails and messages, or rather those that had got past the filter of both Janet and Alice. It was nice not having to read the dross that some people CC’ed her into. It made it far easier for her to home in on the important stuff. She read a summary of the reviews of the Trattoria Trevi Worthing opening and the holding press release, both of which had been prepared and put out by Caroline, who had obviously put in a lot of unpaid hours on Sunday. Jinnie tucked that away for future action, where she saw an employee doing more than their contracted job, she liked to reward it somehow, she was not quite sure how yet, but an opportunity would present itself.
There was a press release from Bearcat (USA) announcing the opening of the 100th Aunty JoJo’s in the U.S. It was, Jinnie was pleased to see, the 92nd franchised outlet. Tucked away in the blurb Jinnie discovered that things were moving quicker than she expected in the States, as the release also revealed that a distribution centre was being established in Atlanta ready for the first four Aunty JoJo’s in the State that would be opening soon. Three were standard franchises, but one was a company owned branch airside at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Jinnie made a note to talk to Monica to congratulate her on progress.
Belinda had emailed her directly to ask if she was going to spend the whole of the school holidays in Barbados this year, as she was planning a big birthday party for Brian’s 50th, which was in the third week of August while they were at their Bridgetown house. Jinnie emailed back that she and the family would indeed be in Barbados then. But it made her think, she rather fancied doing things a little differently this summer and wondered if she was too late to book two weeks cruising out of Southampton to the Mediterranean or the Canaries as soon as the school holidays began, before flying to Barbados. Two weeks at sea and four weeks in Barbados rather appealed. She knew the twins would be delighted to spend more time onboard, they loved cruising, and if she and the twins were happy Paolo would be happy. So she phoned the nice young lad in Corporate Travel and he promised to try to put everything together for her.
Jinnie phoned her mother and said, “Mum, we are looking at going on a cruise the first two weeks of the twins’ summer holidays, are you cruising again this summer?” “We are,” said her mum, “we are on Britannia, going to the Mediterranean for 14 nights from Southampton.” “Oh,” replied Jinnie, “when are you going?” “18th July,” came the reply. “I don’t think we will be on that one,” said Jinnie, “we would have to pull the twins out of school for a few days and I don’t want to do that, we are trying to book for Arvia, it goes a few days later and they will break up on a Friday and the ship sails on Saturday afternoon. I want to fly out to Barbados as soon after we get back, that means we can have four weeks there and be back in time for the start of the new school year.”
“You’ve got it all planned,” said Jinnie’s mum. “Not completely,” said Jinnie, “I was thinking of asking Simone, Jan and Juliette over for the first two weeks, France shuts down for the whole of August, they can have the garden cottage, it’s got two bedrooms. That leaves plenty of rooms in the main house if you and Dad, and Pen and Dan want to stay.” “I’d love to come, but I will have to check with your father,” said Mrs Walsh. “As for Penny, you will have to ask her, I don’t know if she has anything planned.” “I’ll ring her tonight,” said Jinnie, “by then I should know if we have got the cruise sorted.”
***
Jinnie’s one interview with the press was with her old friend Bill Furr, and he was coming to her, with the meeting arranged in her office for 14:30 that afternoon, and he was going to pool the interview. Bill was shown into the office a few minutes early and after shaking hands he accepted Jinnie’s offer of a coffee before getting out his phone while saying, “I hope you don’t mind me recording the meeting, you probably remember my shorthand is atrocious.”
Bill asked a lot of similar questions to the radio interviewers, but he was interested in everything that the group was doing. His questioning made Jinnie wonder if he was looking to become a financial journalist. Of course he was interested in the new restaurant in Worthing, but he also wanted to learn about all the various divisions, how they were doing, where they were prospering, where they were expanding. Jinnie explained that the group was growing fast, mainly because it was a private company and they weren’t under shareholder pressure to pay big dividends, so they could reinvest profits.
Jinnie talked him through how there were now 47 Trattoria Trevi branches in the UK and Ireland and they were looking to open on the European mainland. That in the Americas the equivalent of the chain was Continental Restaurants and that had started in Barbados but now had started opening branches on other Caribbean islands, Canada and three in Florida. She also explained why there were two on St Lucia and the unique arrangement with Carnival.
Then Jinnie talked about the Ennios Hotel Division and how they had recently added to the three in the U.K. with two in the Caribbean and two in Florida. Now they were building a luxury wing at the Miami Ennios, were adding Worthing and were in negotiations to add their first franchise hotels in the Cotswolds, York, Gatwick and possibly Ottawa. Bill was nodding along, making the occasional note and asking questions. It was Aunty JoJo’s that Bill asked about next.
Jinnie tried to summarise the board presentation that had led to the big investment in Florida. She explained how she was happy with how expansion in Britain and Ireland was progressing and there were still plenty of opportunities for more branches, but explained how there were fewer opportunities in their other big market, the Caribbean. They were still opening in the English-speaking market, but they were quickly running out of English-speaking islands of any size. They had two choices, try to expand into another English-speaking country or develop a Spanish-speaking model.
In the end the decision had been to go hard at Florida with what was effectively a new company and if they were successful to move to other states. At the same time the original Caribbean setup would carry on opening branches on English-speaking islands while building up a Spanish offering ready to move into Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, where they had just begun expanding into. “So how many Aunty JoJo’s are there now?” asked Bill. Jinnie answered, “I’m sorry I don’t have the exact number; we seem to be opening new branches in all our territories every week. I know when I did the presentation to the board on Florida it was over 400, but it has grown considerably since then, what with Florida and the decision to open more franchise outlets.”
“I think the Caribbean has opened about 50 since then, mainly in Trinidad and Jamaica, but has a load planned for Puerto Rico and DomRep. They have opened well over 100 in Florida, Canada is opening about two a week so let’s add another 40, but there is about to be a big jump there as they will open in Vancouver next week. UK and Ireland are on about three a week and Slovenia has recently added 10 branches. I make that 260 to add to the initial 400, so let’s say 660 outlets worldwide. If you want an actual number, I will have to get back to you. But the rate of opening is increasing, and my guess is that we will have 1,000 branches by the New Year.”
“Wow,” said Bill, “I didn’t realise things were moving so fast.” “But it’s not only Aunty JoJo’s that is growing,” said Jinnie, “SuperBurger have, after several years of consolidation and reinventing itself, started expanding with new restaurants in the U.K., Ireland and Slovenia. I understand they now have over 2,200 branches and are looking to expand overseas. Unfortunately, I can’t disclose where. Then there is DKL, they are opening kitchens at, at least one a month. I recently attended the latest opening in Shoreham, and all eight kitchens were leased weeks before it was opened.”
“Of course,” continued Jinnie, “that brings work for TT Kitchen Services. They supply staff and manage kitchens for anyone who needs the service. It’s one or two for every DKL group of kitchens we open. It’s these little extras that bring in more money for the group.” “I’ve never heard of TT Kitchen Services,” said Bill. “Their numbers are in our financial reports,” replied Jinnie, “but they are easily overlooked, just like our highly profitable events business. Then there are our new businesses that you may not be aware of, our vineyards, contract catering and ice cream companies.”
“I’ve heard of your wine business,” said Bill, “in fact I have tried it in the Sybaritic in North Finchley, and it was pretty good. But tell me about the catering business.” “Yes, our wine is pretty good value for money,” replied Jinnie, “but are you aware we have established a vineyard and a winery on the South Downs where we will be producing red, white and sparkling wine once the vines are fully established in a couple of years. In the meantime, there is an events space, which our events business is already using, and we are offering vineyard tours. There is also a souvenir shop, a snack bar/café and a decent restaurant.”
“You are probably unaware of the Contract Catering business,” said Jinnie, “because it is based in the Caribbean. It is only small at the moment, but the intention is to grow it. We have won three contracts in under six months, and it is making money already, not a lot, but it is profitable.” “Will you be bringing it to the UK?” asked Bill. “If the opportunity arises,” answered Jinnie, “but we would be up against some formidable competition, so we need to grow the company first. Then there is our other new business, Frank’s Original Ice Cream, a premium brand. At the moment it’s only available in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and a bit of Alabama in the US and in Sussex and Kent in the U.K. We bought Frank’s from a chain of pharmacies who needed the cash, but we also got a contract to supply 400 soda counters in the pharmacies. We retained the local market, in convenience stores, and added in our own outlets, Aunty JoJo’s, Ennios Hotels and a Continental Restaurant. We have turned a barely profitable chain into a profit centre, with the additional outlets.”
“So, we decided to look at expanding to other territories, of course we can expand in the States quite easily and our first move there is to push into the rest of Alabama,” said Jinnie. “Then we must look at which neighbouring state is next. But I wanted to bring the brand to the U.K., and a decision had to be made: start from scratch or buy an existing small company, change it to the Frank’s name and recipe and grow it. We opted for the second option and bought South Coast Ice Cream based in Worthing.”
“It was only a very small company serving Worthing and the immediate surrounding area,” said Jinnie. “But we struck a deal and the existing management are running the business. We immediately put in a second production line and started to prepare for the switch to Frank’s. With the initially expanded production, we increased sales to the whole of West Sussex and TT SuperBurger outlets in the county and started to look for somewhere to build a big regional manufacturing plant with offices.”
“Well, we found a big empty warehouse on Crawley’s Manor Royal estate, not far from the DKL,” continued Jinnie. “Belinda is fitting the warehouse out in phases. We now are in phase 2. Phase 1 included a mezzanine with offices, big freezer room, storage, and a goods in and a goods out. But the most important thing was a big production line, the first of a planned four with others coming in the next phases. But the single line we now have produces double what the two Worthing lines produced together. We now supply East Sussex and parts of Kent as well as our West Sussex market. Of course, we have had to look for new outlets, and the line is not yet running at 100%, but we expect it will soon be doing so. Oh, the two Worthing lines have been switched to produce all our sorbets.”
“That’s all very interesting,” said Bill, “but isn’t it rather expensive?” “That’s true,” replied Jinnie, “we are just about breaking even, but we should be making a decent profit by the end of the summer, especially when we have our ice cream parlours up and running.” “Hang on,” said Bill, “you haven’t mentioned ice cream parlours before.” “Sorry,” said Jinnie, “I have done so many interviews today I just forgot who I told what. We are starting a chain of ‘Frank’s Original Ice Cream Parlours,’ with the first opening opposite the pier in Worthing in about a fortnight. We have 10 planned by the end of August, 22 flavours of ice cream and two flavours of sorbet. Eventually I want parlours in every seaside town in the UK.”
“Isn’t that a bit ambitious?” said Bill. “I suppose it could look that way,” replied Jinnie, “but that is just a start, we want parlours in all the tourist centres. I want to have sit-down space and also sell drinks and cold snacks, but I see a lot of our sales being takeaway cornets and tubs. But after we open a few company-owned outlets, we see the bulk of the parlours being franchises.”
***
When Bill left, she saw the young lad from Travel hovering in the outer office and called him in. “It’s mixed news I’m afraid, Dame Jinnie,” he said, “the Arvia sailing you are looking for is pretty full and nearly all the suites are sold. But I had a chat with a girl at P&O and she found a cancellation of a forward suite on deck 14. It’s a corner suite with a wraparound balcony. The bad news is there is no connecting door to the twin cabin beside it or the twin cabin beside that, but the balcony doors can be opened up. So, I have got a 24-hour hold on the three cabins together. The third is a twin as a single, as I understood from our earlier conversation that your nanny’s husband will not be joining you. If that is OK, do you want me to go ahead and make the booking?”
“Yes, please,” said Jinnie, “once you have done that, I need bookings at the Southampton Ennios for the night before the cruise. Please go directly to Rick Earle, the Ennios MD, and tell him we will be leaving the Lexus at the hotel over the holiday and will need dropping off and picking up at the Cruise Terminal. Then I need flight bookings to Bridgetown a couple of days after we return and return flights on about the 3rd September in time for the twins’ new school year.
In Chapter 13 – A busy summer
© WorthingGooner 2026
