RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

While many com­pa­nies are clos­ing down or cut­ting staff to stay afloat in this eco­nom­ic re­ces­sion, T&T’s first lo­cal­ly-owned restau­rant chain Roy­al Cas­tle is con­tin­u­ing to ex­pand.

Dur­ing the open­ing of its newest out­let in Pe­nal Main Road yes­ter­day, chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Sandy Roopc­hand said with pru­dent man­age­ment, sup­port from lo­cal farm­ers and a mo­ti­vat­ed work­force, they have ex­pand­ed from 12 restau­rants to 37 restau­rants in just 10 years.

Say­ing she was proud that cit­i­zens were al­ways sup­port­ive of Roy­al Cas­tle, Roopc­hand said, “Much of our suc­cess comes from sup­port­ing our own lo­cal farm­ers. She said the com­pa­ny, found­ed in 1968, with 12 em­ploy­ees at Fred­er­ick Street in Port- of-Spain but 50 years lat­er it has a work­force of 520 em­ploy­ees.

Asked what was the se­cret to their suc­cess, Roopc­hand said peo­ple sup­port­ed Roy­al Cas­tle be­cause of its com­mit­ment to the lo­cal farm­ing in­dus­try.

“This year we are cel­e­brat­ing our 50th an­niver­sary. We are 100 per cent lo­cal and our cus­tomers like that. They al­so love our lo­cal taste and flavour, not to men­tion cheap­er prices,” Roopc­hand said.

She al­so added that all its sea­son­ing, sauces, mari­nades, sal­ads and chick­en were 100 per cent lo­cal­ly pro­duced.

“Over the years the com­pa­ny has tried to in­no­vate and adapt to our cus­tomers’ ex­pec­ta­tions for va­ri­ety and taste. We al­ways try to buy lo­cal,” Roopc­hand said.

Say­ing the com­pa­ny was now re­cruit­ing 25 new staff mem­bers for the Pe­nal out­let, Roopc­hand said, un­like oth­er busi­ness­es they have man­aged to keep its work­force.

“Our vi­sion is to grow the com­pa­ny up to around 50 stores—all cor­po­rate. Over the past decade, we have ex­pand­ed. We opened an out­let at C-3 re­cent­ly, we have this new out­let in Pe­nal and we plan to open an­oth­er out­let at El So­cor­ro as well,” Roopc­hand said.

She added that the short­age of for­eign ex­change had af­fect­ed the com­pa­ny neg­a­tive­ly but de­spite this, they have con­tin­ued to grow.

“Some­times it is dif­fi­cult ac­quir­ing for­eign ex­change when we have to pur­chase parts for equip­ment but we have a good re­la­tion­ship with our bankers so we have been able to over­come our for­eign ex­change chal­lenges,” Roopc­hand said.

Cus­tomer Ex­pe­ri­ence Man­ag­er Na­tal­ie Gor­don said Roy­al Cas­tle was in the process of re­cruit­ing staff.

“If you need a job and you are peo­ple-ori­ent­ed, then come in and fill out an ap­pli­ca­tion form. We will be hap­py to make you part of our team,” Gor­don said.

Cus­tomers were yes­ter­day treat­ed to cake, sta­tion­ary, in­su­lat­ed cups and free meals. A few who an­swered ques­tions on the com­pa­ny’s op­er­a­tions were giv­en meal vouch­ers.