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The villa had been full of fresh flowers, the fridge was fully stocked, the grass was recently trimmed, the pool had been vacuumed, and even the A/C was on. Jinnie whispered to Paolo, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen the villa looking so good. We’ll have to tip the maintenance people.” Willie and Millie arrived back from dumping their backpacks in their bedrooms, and Willie said, “We’ve got new duvet covers. Mine is Dennis the Menace.” “And mine is Minnie the Minx,” added Millie. “That’s what I call appropriate,” said Izzy.
Paolo said, “There is even a load of Banks bottles and mixers in the pool house fridge. Has the maintenance company changed?” “Not as far as I know,” said Jinnie. “The direct debit is still going to the same company. Mrs Gibson is due to come in tomorrow to sort out the Garden Cottage for Simone, Jan and Juliette. I’ll ask her then.”
“When is Juliette coming, Mummy?” asked Millie. “The day after tomorrow. Granny and Grandad are on the same flight.” “But they live in Nice, and that’s France,” said Millie. “Yes, but there are no flights to Barbados from Nice,” replied Jinnie, “and there are only two planes a week from Paris, and they go via Martinique. So instead of changing planes in Paris, they are changing in London because there are lots of planes every day. They are all on the afternoon Virgin plane from Heathrow and will not be here until early evening.”
“Oh,” said Willie, “so we can go to the beach tomorrow and the next day.” “Of course,” said Jinnie, “although I am going into town to talk business some of the time, but Daddy and Izzy will be there.” “When are Auntie Penny, Uncle Dan and George coming?” asked Millie. “In a couple of weeks, when Granny and Grandad go home. Then they will be going home on the same plane as us,” answered Jinnie. “Are we flying Upper Class home, because they have proper beds?” asked Willie. “Well, I don’t know,” answered Jinnie. “We are booked in Premium, but with any luck we will be upgraded. But I’ll let you into a secret that Granny and Grandad, Auntie Penny, Uncle Dan and George don’t know. When we fly to Barbados for our Christmas cruise, we are flying with Virgin from Heathrow, and we have Upper Class both ways, so you can sleep all the way home.”
“Now I have a question. Do I order a takeaway from DKL for our dinner tonight, or should we go to Anderson’s?” Without hesitation, the twins chorused, “Anderson’s.” Millie added, “And we want coconut shrimp for a starter. It is fab.” Jinnie grinned and replied, “That’s good, because I have already booked Anderson’s.” “Mummy, you cheated,” said Willie.
***
The five of them walked down the path to Anderson’s and soon spotted the restaurant’s twinkling lights ahead of them. Izzy said, “I love this walk, and I always enjoy seeing the lights. It is so enticing.” “What does enticing mean?” asked Millie. “Well, it could mean tempting or attractive,” said Izzy, “I think I meant attractive,” she added. “I like it when you two ask what words mean,” said Jinnie. “Mrs Pilbeam would be delighted.” “But it’s not Mrs Pilbeam next term,” said Willie. “It’s Mr Excell instead, and he is the deputy headmaster.”
They were shown to their table, which the twins approved of and said was the best in the restaurant. As they read through the menu, Anderson slipped into the spare chair and said, “Hello, everyone. It is lovely to see you all again.” Looking at the twins, he added, “Please pick whatever you want from the menu. There will be no charge, as your mummy and I own the place, and we are making a good profit. I have told the waiters that you are very special guests, and you can have anything you like. There are my special fish fingers, chips and peas all ready if you want them, and I have bananas if you want banana splits.”
The twins quickly said, “We knew what we wanted as soon as Mummy told us she had booked a table. It’s coconut shrimp, fish fingers and banana splits.” “I guessed as much,” said Anderson, “you two are nothing if not consistent. Winston will be over to take your orders in a moment, and I’ll join you later for coffee if you don’t mind. I need a word with your mummy.”
***
Jinnie wiped her mouth and said, “I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed eating here on the terrace on a warm evening.” “Yes,” said Paolo, “it is a lovely place to eat, and the food isn’t bad either.” Jinnie chuckled and said, “I am ready for coffee, and bang on time, here comes Anderson and the waiter.” Everyone ordered coffee except for the twins, who, to Anderson’s surprise, asked for tea.
Anderson said, “Jinnie, I need to talk about our next Caribbean restaurant and what we do next here. As you know, we have three restaurants in various stages of building in Jamaica, that makes six there. We also have three dark kitchens, and things are going well. Here in Barbados, we have three restaurants and two kitchens, and in Trinidad we have just the one restaurant.” “From what I gather from the accounts, Trinidad had a rough start but is doing nicely now,” said Jinnie. “That’s what I wanted to talk about,” said Anderson. “It took a while to get it moving. I think it was because we were totally unknown. In Jamaica, a lot of tourists had visited one of our Barbados restaurants, and it gave us a kick start.”
“So, in your roundabout way, you’re saying you think we should open another restaurant in Trinidad,” said Jinnie. “Well, I suppose so,” said Anderson. “It’s either there or Jamaica.” “Well, we agreed that strategic decisions in the Caribbean were your baby and Britain was mine.” “True,” said Anderson, “but I’m asking for your advice. I’m not saying I’ll take it.” “OK,” said Jinnie, “I don’t have your overview of the numbers, so I’m going by my gut feeling. I would go for Trinidad. It’s the bigger market, and now you are established, a second outlet should be much easier. But what I would say is, have you thought about a dark kitchen in Port of Spain?”
“I have,” replied Anderson, “but I didn’t think there were any available.” “I can’t tell you there is,” said Jinnie, “but if you talk to the DKL sales team, you might get a pleasant surprise.” “I will have to look at the figures very carefully,” said Anderson, “I’m not sure we have the money to do both, what with the commitment in Jamaica.” “Would you like me to have a look at your calculations? I’m in Bridgetown tomorrow, so I could drop in to your offices. In any case, I would like to have a look at them. It is partly my money that is paying for them.” “Yes, please,” said Anderson, “I’ll be in the office from about 10.30 onwards.” On the way back to the villa, Willie said, “Mummy, when you talk about work, it’s boring.” Jinnie replied, “I’m sorry you find it boring, but it pays for our holidays.”
***
The following morning, after breakfast, Paolo and Izzy took the twins to the beach, and Jinnie stayed at the villa waiting for Mrs Gibson to arrive. Her car pulled up on the drive shortly before ten, and Mrs Gibson and a girl in her late teens climbed out of the car and let themselves in. Jinnie said, “Good morning, Mrs Gibson. I am off into town shortly, but I wanted to say thank you for the condition of the villa when we arrived yesterday. I don’t think I have ever seen it looking so good.” Mrs Gibson beamed from ear to ear and replied, “Hello, Dame Jinnie. I can’t take much responsibility for that. It was mostly the work of my daughter here, Violet. She left school this summer and has joined the family business. She has lots of ideas we are trying, and customers seem to like what we are doing.”
“Well, I am delighted,” said Jinnie. “As you know, we have old university friends coming to stay tomorrow, and they are staying in the Garden Bungalow with their ten-year-old daughter. And my mum and dad are on the same plane and will be in the main guest suite.” “That’s OK,” said Mrs Gibson, “we will have everything ready for them in a couple of hours. We only really need to make up the beds, freshen up the rooms and put some fresh flowers in the rooms.” “Don’t forget to leave the invoice for all the extras like the flowers, the food and the beer. I’ll pay it electronically as soon as I get it. I’ll leave you to get on with things now. I’m off to complete some business in town.”
As she was about to leave, Jinnie suddenly had a thought and asked, “Tell me, why did Violet opt to join the family business? Surely a bright girl, like she obviously is, would prefer to go into a management training scheme.” “It’s not that she didn’t try,” said Mrs Gibson, “but getting a job in Barbados without any experience is not easy. In a year’s time, Violet will have a proper CV and can be taken more seriously as a management trainee.” “What sort of business is she interested in going into?” asked Jinnie. “You would have to ask her to be certain,” replied Mrs Gibson, “but I think it’s hospitality.”
***
Jinnie sat in reception at the Bear Cat offices and replayed her conversation with Mrs Gibson in her head. Violet had obviously joined the family maintenance business and had shaken it up. Jinnie prided herself on being able to spot talent, even if they did not have formal qualifications. She had found several in the past, Monika, Ro and Brooke, and had the feeling Violet could be another. Violet was the sort of person she would readily have hired if she had approached one of her British companies.
Before she could think any further, a voice dragged her back to the present, saying, “Good morning, Dame Jinnie. I’m here to escort you to the boardroom.” The girl tapped on the boardroom door and showed Jinnie in. All the people she intended to speak to were waiting for her, Leah, Jorja, Sebastian, Gracie and Keith. Jinnie said, “Hello, everyone. I’m delighted to see you all. Before we start, I want to say I am officially here on holiday, so I can’t officially work. But if you want to tell me things or you want advice, that is allowed, as it is not considered work.”
Gracie said, “Well, that’s the official bit out of the way. Can we get down to business? I’ll start. I’m pleased to be able to report that Auntie JoJo’s in the Caribbean is going from strength to strength. Although I am now officially reporting to Monica in Tampa, she lets me get on and run things. The business in most of the English-speaking islands is nearing maturity. We have a few islands where we could add a branch or two, but it’s not more than a dozen in total, and we will have to supply them from the bigger islands. We have started our Spanish-speaking expansion, and we already have nine branches in the Dominican Republic, and we think we could grow that to about thirty. We have contracts in place for all sorts of supplies, including chicken and potatoes.”
Gracie continued, “We are currently setting up an infrastructure to move into Puerto Rico. It should be a bigger business, and we are looking at about one hundred restaurants there. We think that we might look at Mexico after that. The marketing people tell me that would take around four hundred branches. We are quickly moving to the ten per cent owned, ninety per cent franchised model that has proven to offer the biggest profit margin. I’m pleased to say that we are practically self-sufficient as far as funding is concerned. In fact, we are generating a healthy surplus of funds and are predicting paying around £3 million into company coffers this financial year.”
“Well, all that sounds good,” said Jinnie. “I only have one thought. Now we have a Spanish-speaking model, is it possible to move into some of the big Spanish-speaking South American markets? My understanding is that, although none are likely to be as big as Mexico, the likes of Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia should all be able to support at least one hundred outlets each.” “We have South America next on our list of areas to tackle,” said Gracie. “The problem is that some of them are very large physically, and that makes the infrastructure difficult. But we are currently thinking that Central America, say Costa Rica and Panama, should come next. Marketing says that they are both around fifty outlets, and we are looking at doing more parallel national developments rather than the serial model we are currently using.”
“As we grow as a company,” Gracie continued, “it is easier to target more than one market at a time. We currently have about one hundred and twenty outlets across the Caribbean, with around half of our market in Trinidad. With the current programme, we aim to have double that by this time next year, with the mature markets in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico adding the bulk of the new outlets. But the move into Mexico will be big. To go from around two hundred and fifty outlets to six hundred and fifty is bound to test our capabilities. I don’t want to stretch things too far.”
“How about you look at Costa Rica and Panama before Mexico,” said Jinnie, “with another one hundred restaurants, the addition of Mexico would be built on a more financially stable business. I can’t see you adding that number in less than three or four years. I really think you need to look more at that parallel development programme you talked about. If we don’t put a foot into South America, someone else will, and the market will be saturated.”
“OK,” said Jinnie. “Who wants to go next?” “I will,” said Leah. “Artisan Donuts is a pretty new business in the TT SuperBurger world, only having been in existence for under a year. But in that time, we have really taken off, and I think shocked the likes of Krispy Creme and Dunkin Donuts. We have the advantage that we mainly sell through other TT SuperBurger businesses, which keeps our overheads down and allows us to keep our prices below our major competitors in the Caribbean. We are now in every Auntie JoJo’s, as Gracie has already said. That is about one hundred and twenty outlets, and sales have been excellent right from the beginning.”
“In addition, we have three, soon to be four, shops in Bridgetown, Port of Spain and Kingston, Jamaica,” continued Leah. “Now, these are not so much shops as factory outlets, as they are all co-located with our major bakery for the island. Don’t get me wrong, they are all making a profit, but we also use them to test market new flavours and toppings. We have also started selling in Florida and the UK. It’s early days in both markets. In Florida, we only have a single bakery in Miami. It serves about thirty-five Auntie JoJo’s from the Keys to Palm Beach and a single shop in Fort Lauderdale, where we also make them. We plan to have other bakeries and associated shops in Tampa and Jacksonville, possibly Orlando, and that should allow us to cover just about all the Florida Auntie JoJo’s outlets.”
“The purchase of Frank’s has given us both an opportunity and a problem,” Leah added. “Another five hundred plus outlets is not to be sniffed at, but my problem is that we can’t make sufficient donuts to supply them, even from the Fort Lauderdale bakery. It was never sized to take on the Frank’s outlets. We are more than doubling the size of the bakeries that we are building, but we want to look to Georgia, where Frank’s has loads of outlets.”
“Then there is the UK,” said Leah. “Brooke has been fantastic, but we have a long way to go. We have a vast opportunity to sell via Auntie JoJo’s, SuperBurger, and possibly, best of all, Artisan Sandwiches, even the embryo Frank’s Ice Cream Parlours. Brooke and I have had numerous video meetings, and we have decided to approach things steadily. We have built our first bakery, and it’s on Crawley’s Manor Royal Estate, which I understand you know well. It’s not huge, but it is scalable if we have sufficient sales. Now I understand we have started marketing at TT SuperBurger outlets in the Crawley area and a lot of Artisan Sandwiches that can be served from Crawley, and it is going well. I will be talking with Brooke later today, and on the agenda is how to increase production.”
“Thank you,” said Jinnie. “I don’t want to interfere with what you and Brooke are considering, but please remember that if you need group funds to speed up expansion, I think I can get the main board to release them. Now, one question, have you looked at Canada yet?” “Not yet,” said Leah. “We are stretched enough as things stand. I’m tied up looking after the Caribbean, Monica is looking after Florida and Brooke the UK. We don’t have anyone spare to take on the Canadian market. We are hiring fast, but it is almost impossible to find people with management experience, or even potential. I really wouldn’t know where to start in Canada.”
“Maybe I can help a bit,” said Jinnie. “I can put you in touch with the top people in Auntie JoJo’s in Canada. I’m sure they have someone in their Toronto HQ who could start looking at things for you. As for people with potential, I met a young girl today who impressed me hugely. If she had been in the UK, I would have snapped her up for our management training scheme. She is working for a family house maintenance and management company, and I think she could be going places. I’ll put you in touch if you like. She has no experience in hospitality, but do me a favour, take her on as an assistant to you, and I’m pretty sure you won’t regret it. I’ll put you in touch.”
Keith was up next. He started by making the point that, although his business was based in the Bearcat offices, he was actually not part of that division. Rather, he was part of the construction division. He said the construction and refurbishment business was extremely busy. He had a lot of work on in-house projects for Auntie JoJo’s in Jamaica and Trinidad, Bearcat Catering in Barbados, and DKL in Jamaica. Then he talked about work in Barbados, where he had four crews working on refurbishments, one fitting out a new office block and another building a new Artisan Bakery in Montego Bay.
The final speaker was Jorja, with the backing of Sebastian. Jorja said, “You are probably a little more familiar with Bearcat Catering, as we have been talking recently about a project in the North Sea. For the benefit of the others here, I think I should explain the whole Bearcat Catering business concept. Please, Dame Jinnie, correct me if I get anything wrong. As I understand it, Dame Jinnie’s original idea was to get into the British contract catering business, which is huge and dominated by only a few companies that turn over thousands of millions of pounds. However, she realised that a small start-up company in the UK would almost certainly be killed at birth by the big boys in the UK.”
“Therefore, the decision was taken to start the business out of sight of these big boys in Barbados. I was appointed to run the business, but my background is Auntie JoJo’s, and I knew next to nothing about contract catering, so Sebastian, who does, was brought in to support me. After six months, we have been rather successful and have secured contracts to cater for a hospital, a brewery, the Kensington Oval, a car importer and a gas production rig off Trinidad. We are in negotiations for the catering contract with the Barbados Revenue Authority, which has six offices across the island. We have recently secured an extension to our production rig contract to supply all the catering on six production rigs off the west coast of Florida.”
“But it doesn’t stop there,” Leah said. “When Dame Jinnie was here at Christmas, she learned of a company proposing to make a major film here in Barbados that wanted mobile catering for the project. We were not set up for this outside work, but we are now, and I’m delighted to tell you that four days ago we shook hands on the deal, and when they start filming in a month, we will be supplying all the outdoor catering. The contract is still with the lawyers and not signed yet, so this is to be treated as confidential. What has happened in the meantime is that we have set up Bearcat Caribbean Outdoor Catering, and it has already catered for a government garden party and five large weddings. We are currently contracted to supply catering to a Christmas party event, also organised by Bearcat Catering, and I can confidently predict that we will make a profit this year.”
“Finally,” said Leah, “that same oil and gas producer has approached us to quote for catering on their North Sea oil and gas production platforms. As I explained earlier, we were originally set up with the idea that we would eventually try to break into the British contract catering market. Well, we now have a UK division of Bearcat Catering under us bidding for this opportunity to break into the UK market. Oh, I nearly forgot to mention, under a recent reorganisation, we have been moved to report to the TT SuperBurger Events Company, and it is already helping. They encouraged us to launch into the Christmas party business, and gosh, it looks like being successful. With only a few days of this booking season gone, we know we are likely to make a huge profit, far more than our wildest predictions, and we are already organising next year’s.”
“Tell me if I am being impractical,” said Jinnie, “but in the UK the Events Company has recently moved into its own events building. It’s a long story, but we are setting up a vineyard and winery, and the events space is tied into that. Now I know that you can’t grow wine grapes in the Caribbean, but you can and do grow sugar cane and distil rum. What do you think of a Bearcat distillery, with our own rums sold throughout the group’s restaurants, combined with distillery tours sold to the tourist market and an events building for our own Christmas parties and any other sort of event you can think of during the rest of the year? Weddings, birthdays, christenings, retirements, school leaving dos, you name it, we could host it. This is very much a long-term proposal, and I don’t for a moment think it could happen any time soon, but it just might be worth looking at in the background.”
“Thank you all for this enlightening morning,” continued Jinnie. “I can see you are all working hard to contribute to a very successful Caribbean operation. I am on holiday in my villa for the next five weeks, and I will make a point of popping into various TT SuperBurger businesses while I am here because I am genuinely interested in seeing how things are done in the various parts of the company. It is not a tour of inspection, more a tour of learning on my part.”
The group had a buffet lunch of Auntie JoJo’s offerings delivered by DKL. As she bit into an “original flavour” chicken leg, she could not help thinking how happy Larry would have been to see such a spread of chicken and vowed to have an “Auntie JoJo’s chicken” evening when she got home. Larry and the twins would love it. But it was the Artisan donuts that topped off the meal wonderfully. She tried one with caramel icing and decided it was better than the chocolate iced one she had last time she had tried one.
***
Jinnie drove over to the Ennios St James Hotel. She wanted to see how things were going before driving back to the villa. She was stopped by an armed security guard at the gate. He carried a clipboard with a list of the guests arriving that day. Obviously she was not on it, but she was admitted when she produced her staff card. The security man was on the ball, as the manager was waiting for her in reception and led her straight to his office, where coffee arrived within seconds of her sitting down.
The manager said, “This is a pleasant surprise, Dame Jinnie. I didn’t know you were on the island.” “We have a holiday home near Sandy Lane, and we like to spend a chunk of the school holidays here. My twins love it,” said Jinnie. “Are you near Anderson’s Fish Restaurant? I can thoroughly recommend a visit. The food is marvellous,” said the manager. “I know it well,” replied Jinnie. “In fact, we ate there last night. You won’t know this, or you wouldn’t have recommended it, but I am a half owner of the chain. I don’t have a lot to do with the Caribbean restaurants. I am too busy with other things, but I do have a bit to do with the British arm, which is growing very quickly.”
“But that’s not why I decided to pay a quick visit,” said Jinnie. “I just wanted to show my face and ask if there are any problems I can help with. I noted you have added security to the site. Have you had problems here?” “No, we haven’t,” replied the manager. “But some of the other hotels have. We decided that we would be proactive and increase security to protect our guests. I’m sure if you read Rick’s monthly report, you will see that business is excellent. We are running at about 98 per cent full, something other hotels would give an arm and a leg for. The new restaurants are packed, and we are making good money. Thinking about it, I believe there is only one thing that this hotel needs, and that’s an additional wing. I hear we are adding an executive wing to the Ennios Miami. I would love to see the same here. At the moment, all the high net worth customers stay at Sandy Lane or the O2 Beach Club. If I had fifty executive rooms, I could easily fill them. I would want an executive zone with its own cabanas and pool. The restaurant here gets superior reviews to Sandy Lane, and I have talked with the Continental about priority bookings.”
“That’s interesting,” said Jinnie. “The executive wing in Miami was my idea. It’s only just opened, but early reports say it is very successful. OK, this is what I suggest. Run this idea past Rick. Tell him I tentatively approve, but I want a costed plan to present to the board. Talk to Keith’s Refurbishments. They did the upgrade work here and are part of our group, so they will keep whatever is planned confidential. I suspect Keith will talk to our construction director, Belinda. Her people in England have the design skills and experience. They designed the Miami wing. I think she is holidaying in Barbados next week, so she might want to visit with Keith to measure up and take photos. If it can be done at a reasonable cost, with the possibility of returning a profit in a couple of years, I will push it through the board.”
Chapter 20 – Simone Is Offered a Job
© WorthingGooner 2026
