Michelle Loubon

Mario Sab­ga-Aboud, group chair­man of the Glob­al Brands group of com­pa­nies, says his pro­ject­ed costs for ex­pand­ing Rit­u­als Cof­fee House out­lets are $10 mil­lion in 2012. He is ex­pect­ed to spend about $20 mil­lion on ad­di­tion­al Rit­u­als out­lets in 2013. On Thurs­day, Sab­ga-Aboud ope­­­­­­­­ned its 48th out­let on the ground floor of the Nalis Li­brary, Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain.

In­ter­viewed on Fri­day, he said: "I am try­ing to po­si­tion my­self 10 min­utes away from any cen­tral lo­ca­tion. I?am go­ing to be spend­ing $10 mil­lion for 2012 and an­oth­er $20 mil­lion in 2013. I am try­ing to po­si­tion my­self in such a man­ner, you can get Rit­u­als any­where you are in 10 min­utes."

He added:? "I?am in go­ing to open more in places like Pe­nal, Debe and Port-of-Spain. The idea is to en­ter a num­ber of of­fice build­ings. I have out­lets in all the malls. I have three out­lets at Trinci­ty Mall. I?have two at Mt Hope Hos­pi­tal. I am try­ing to get in­to the Port-of-Spain hos­pi­tal. I?am try­ing to open small­er stores every­where. I?have one at the Pi­ar­co Air­port." He not­ed cus­tomers can have ac­cess to a slew of cof­fee shops.

He added: "You can trav­el from West­moor­ings to Ari­ma and you can ac­cess about 15 cof­fee shops. We have six in down­town Port-of-Spain. We have one in Church's Chick­en (Port-of-Spain) and one at Up­Town Mall. We have one in Fred­er­ick Street. We have one at Nicholas Tow­ers." To date, the for­mi­da­ble en­tre­pre­neur's move to open its newest out­let has been hailed as ben­e­fi­cial for the li­brary and the city, since it boasts a mar­riage of com­merce to in­dige­nous cul­ture. Bib­lio­philes were es­pe­cial­ly tar­get­ed with the open­ing of the Nalis out­let.

Among the places, Sab­ga-Aboud is ex­pect­ed to es­tab­lish out­lets in­clude: Trinci­ty, Ch­agua­nas, Pe­nal, Ma­yaro, Phillip­ines, Port-of-Spain and Scar­bor­ough To­ba­go. He said:?"I?am look­ing at sev­en for 2012. And an­oth­er 20 more next year. We want to open two per month for 2013. If I?get the chance I?would open one at Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al. I am think­ing of Ma­yaro. A lot of peo­ple go up there for the week­ends."

Apart from land-based out­lets, Sab­ga-Aboud said:?"We are ex­plor­ing the wa­ter taxis be­tween Port-of-Spain and San Fer­nan­do." Apart from cof­fees, chillers and smooth­ies, Rit­u­als sells an as­sort­ment of del­i­ca­cies in­clud­ing Ja­maican pat­ties, wraps, donuts, bagels and sand­wich­es. Rit­u­als has al­so be­come a house­hold word through­out the Caribbean in coun­tries like St Lu­cia, St Kitts, Ja­maica, Bar­ba­dos, Cu­ra­cao and Suri­name.

Mean­while, he said one of the set­backs to fierce ex­pan­sion was short­age of staff. "We are look­ing to hire about 200 peo­ple. We are pay­ing way above the min­i­mum wage. The short­age of staff is re­strict­ing the ag­gres­sive growth and ex­pan­sion. We are af­fect­ed by the short­age of labour al­though, it is said the un­em­ploy­ment rate is 4.9 per cent."