Xtra Foods of­fi­cial­ly opened its sev­enth lo­ca­tion at South Park last Fri­day morn­ing, mark­ing the su­per­mar­ket chain’s first ex­pan­sion in­to south­ern Trinidad and a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in its na­tion­al growth.

The store opened short­ly af­ter 7.30 am to sus­tained ap­plause from a large crowd, with cus­tomers fill­ing the aisles and ex­tend­ing be­yond the en­trance. Some pa­trons had ar­rived as ear­ly as 3.00 a.m., ea­ger to be among the first to en­ter the new lo­ca­tion.

Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer An­ge­lo Daniel Austin de­scribed the open­ing as a re­flec­tion of the strong bond be­tween the com­pa­ny and its cus­tomers.

“This morn­ing re­mind­ed us why we do what we do,” Austin said. “To the cus­tomers who wait­ed from as ear­ly as 3 am, thank you. Your pres­ence, your pa­tience, and your trust mean more to us than words can ful­ly ex­press.”

The South Park branch rep­re­sents a long-an­tic­i­pat­ed move in­to the south­ern mar­ket, an ex­pan­sion the com­pa­ny said aligns with its strat­e­gy to serve com­mu­ni­ties across Trinidad and To­ba­go with con­sis­tent ser­vice and cus­tomer care.

Austin al­so ac­knowl­edged the con­tri­bu­tions of em­ploy­ees, sup­pli­ers and part­ners who sup­port­ed the project from con­cep­tion to com­ple­tion.

“This store ex­ists be­cause of peo­ple,” he said. “Our staff who worked late nights and ear­ly morn­ings, our sup­pli­ers who stood with us, and our part­ners who be­lieved in the vi­sion. Every one of you played a role in bring­ing this store to life.”

The open­ing co­in­cides with Xtra Foods’ on­go­ing in­ter­nal trans­for­ma­tion pro­gramme, which the com­pa­ny says is fo­cused on fos­ter­ing a strong Cul­ture of Ex­cel­lence. Ac­cord­ing to Austin, this ini­tia­tive em­pha­sis­es dis­ci­pline, com­pe­tence and ac­count­abil­i­ty in­ter­nal­ly, while re­in­forc­ing a cus­tomer-first ap­proach ex­ter­nal­ly.

“Our shelves mat­ter, but peo­ple mat­ter more,” he not­ed. “We don’t just serve shop­pers; we serve com­mu­ni­ties, dai­ly rou­tines and fam­i­ly ta­bles.”

As cus­tomers streamed in­to the store, the at­mos­phere was both fes­tive and or­der­ly, with staff as­sist­ing shop­pers as they ex­plored the new space. By mid-morn­ing, the South Park lo­ca­tion had tak­en on the feel of an es­tab­lished com­mu­ni­ty hub rather than a new­ly opened out­let.

With the ad­di­tion of its sev­enth store, Xtra Foods says it is en­ter­ing south­ern Trinidad not on­ly to ex­pand its foot­print, but to be­come an in­te­gral part of the com­mu­ni­ty it serves.

“We are grate­ful to be here,” Austin said. “May God bless this store, this com­mu­ni­ty, and every­one who walks through these doors.”