Hot Bread Kitchen Franchising (Fiji) Limited company chairperson Dr Mere Samisoni (left).
By MARAIA VULA Hot Bread Kitchen has invested $300,000 into two new shops. Company chairperson Mere Samisoni said: “Firstly, Hot Bread Kitchen has a policy of investing for expansion although we have had to slow this down for several years. “The investment for RB Centrepoint was $150k and $200k for Damodar City. The latter had additional equipment for making our range of health breads. “The locations of our two new shops were chosen because of the high rate of pedestrian traffic at those places,” Dr Samisoni said. The new shops were opened late last year. Further investment Dr Samisoni explained they had nothing further planned at the moment in Fiji but they are looking regionally. “Our company Hot Bread Kitchen Franchising (Fiji) Limited is however having discussions in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea about establishing the Hot Bread Kitchen line in those countries,” she said. “We welcome competition as we compete on customer service and quality,” Employment creation The RB Patel shop has nine employees, including six who were already part of the Hot Bread workforce. The shop at Damodar City has 17 staff. “Ther are 12 new staff and five have been transferred from other shops. “The impact of this re-structure, provided opportunities for staff to be promoted up the HBK career structure, where we transferred senior employees to the new sites,” she said Dr Samisoni pointed out 19 staff from the two shops were new and 10 were continuing staff.