The Jamaican patty — a delicious blend of meat, vegetables, and spices baked into a golden pastry crust — has long been an icon of Caribbean culture. Daniel Chin’s family built a national Jamaican restaurant chain around this classic treat, and Chin has spearheaded the company’s venture into the next great frontier: Juici Patties is going international, and Florida is just the beginning.
This past Labor Day weekend, Juici Patties celebrated the opening of its fourth United States franchise in Sunrise, Florida. The store’s grand opening follows new locations in Lauderdale Lakes, Hollywood, and Lauderhill.
Expanding into South Florida might seem logical for a company with Caribbean roots based on geography alone. But the decision was based on a deeper strategy for Daniel Chin, son of founder Jukie Chin and CEO of the United States division of Juici Patties.
“It was a combination of proximity, the size of the Jamaican diaspora, and the vibrant food culture that led to South Florida becoming a destination,” says Chin. “There’s a large Jamaican diaspora in Florida. There’s also a great variety of cuisines and plenty of foodies. We want people with personal Jamaican and non-Jamaican backgrounds to enjoy these restaurants in Florida.”
What led to the company’s incredible growth throughout Jamaica and beyond? Any Juici Patties customer will tell you that the authentically delicious food has much to do with it. This might be the main selling point, but Chin’s focus on bettering every facet of the company has also primed it for growth. When he started with the company, he made a change that ultimately primed it for growth into new markets.
“I’m a firm believer that the first step to improvement is recognizing where changes need to be made,” he explains. “About six years ago, we noticed that customer service was an area where we could enhance our efforts. We’ve heard some visitors to Jamaica might have comments about customer service, and we wanted to ensure we exceeded expectations. By acknowledging this, we revamped our approach to recruiting, training, and hiring, and the results have been transformative for our customer experience.”
Among other changes, Chin focused on instilling a sense of ownership into employees, pressing managers to get on board with the new initiative. His efforts paid off. “Now, we have become the absolute leader in customer service,” he says. “We’re proud to consistently deliver excellent customer service, which can sometimes be hard to come by.”
Chin has taken the same training and hiring strategies that revolutionized Juici Patties in Jamaica and applied them to the new Florida locations. And thus far, he has met with success.
As the company continues to grow — both in terms of geographical footprint and total employees — it has held onto that commitment to customer service. “When I joined the company 10 years ago, we had roughly 1,300 employees,” Chin says. “Now we’ve grown to 1,900 employees. We’re always, always hiring.”
Written in partnership with Stephanie Borrows
