Contributed
Thalia Lyn, CEO Island Grill (front, centre) poses with the Island Grill team at the newly opened Island Grill Restaurant at Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados.

Thalia Lyn's Island Grill fast-food chain has partnered with the Barbadian conglomerate, Goddard Enterprises, to open a restaurant at Bridgetown's Grantley Adams International airport, in what they expect to be the start of a foray across the Eastern Caribbean.

"We want to look at St. Lucia and we want to look at Antigua and perhaps elsewhere in the Caribbean," Lyn told Sunday Business. "But we will be led by Goddard, for it is they who know the region."

Initial plans are for two more stores to be opened in Barbados during next year.

Jamaican jerk

Launched in the 1990s with a single restaurant and cuisine based on Jamaican jerk and a livery of bright Caribbean colours, Island Grill now has 14 stores across Jamaica and a turnover estimated at around half a billion dollars.

Lyn has long planned to take her franchise outside Jamaica and did in fact, at the start of the decade, launch a store in Florida, but was forced to retreat in the face of market and organisation difficulties.

With Goddard now on board, with the senior stake in a 60:40 arrangement, Lyn believes she now has a partner to take the Island Grill concept to the rest of the Caribbean, starting with the 1,300 square-foot store at Grantley Adams, one of the Caribbean's busiest airports.

While the Island Grill theme remains, the menu is adjusted for local tastes and cuisine. For example, in Barbados, a flying fish sandwich and macaroni pie are on the menu.

The value of the investment was not announced, but Goddard would bring to the partnership not only cash, but a substantial reputationin the eastern Caribbean and knowledge across a range of industries, including food.

Among the businesses in the group is Goddard Enterprises, which is heavily into airline catering, including as a partner with Jamaica's GraceKennedy in Versair, the company that provides food to airlines operating at Jamaica's two international airports.

Goddard also operates the Grab and Go fast-food stores at airports, including the one at Grantley Adams, next to which Island Grill is located.

"The plan is to go where Goddard operates," Lyn said. "What we are doing is leveraging our brand with a strong and knowledgeable partner."