–creates employment for 35 persons
THE third location of Chicken ‘n’ Burger Delight, representing an investment of more than $95M, was opened on Friday at Richmond Public Road, on the Essequibo Coast, providing employment to 35 persons from nearby communities and a home-style diner for residents in the Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) communities.
With the first restaurant of its kind opening in December 2012 at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara (WCD), Proprietor Chatandra Puran, who is also a director at Puran Brothers Disposal Services, made sure to grow and improve his brand, eventually opening a second restaurant in 2021 at Leonora, also on the WCD.
Convinced that now is the best time in Guyana’s history to invest, he went after the third location, which officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday. The fourth and fifth locations are slated for completion later this year.
The recipe at Chicken ‘n’ Burger Delight is a secret, with a combination of local ingredients and those that have to be sourced from overseas.
“There are some ingredients for fried chicken that you just can’t get the right touch on here without it tasting local,” Puran told Guyana Chronicle after the ceremony.
Apart from an appealing menu line-up, the intention is to be able to deliver the same level of service that customers have been enjoying at the other locations.
“In Guyana, we have a culture of customer service woes and we have customer service downfall from time to time but the management of Chicken ‘n’ Burger has always tried to overcome it.”
To help accomplish this, management plans to visit the site often and have an active presence and involvement in the operations. Further, rigorous procedural training and in customer service will be done with staff members.
“Management will never be absent; that is a commitment. We have studied it here thoroughly and as management, we try to be very active and proactive in addressing customer issues.”
Puran said that he also believes in caring for his corporate social responsibilities so that they would not just establish business in a community, but would seek to add value to it.
“We want to take care of our social corporate responsibility in the community and both at Leonora and Vreed-en-Hoop, we’ve always done donations or contributed to the community in whatever occasion during the year and we intend to that here.”
INVEST NOW
In Guyana’s history, Puran said now is the best time out of any other time to invest in Guyana and help to grow the economy. “We have international companies; foreign investments here more than ever and this is the time for the local businessmen and women to invest.”
His advice to local entrepreneurs: “Invest now. The population is growing; the economy is growing tremendously. The domestic income for the average household has increased maybe double over the past five years, so now is the time more than ever to invest.”
Puran is hoping that the public will be understanding and patient with the new staff at the restaurant. They have to be integrated into the current operation and be trained as they go along.
“In Essequibo, we have guidance from senior employees but please be a little patient and tolerant for the first few weeks while we work on getting the training done as much as we could, and nothing beats on the job training.”
The new restaurant will utilise 80 per cent of ingredients from local farmers and producers. In addition to the 35 new employees (145 spread over the three restaurants), additional workers would also have to be hired to sustain the operations.
