Foreign investor secures majority ownership of Church’s Chicken

Sep 30, 2020 News

Foreign investor, SEAF Caribbean SME Growth Fund, has acquired a majority ownership interest in Camex Restaurants Incorporated in Guyana, which will enable the fast food restaurant franchisee to push its growth and expansion plans. According to a statement issues yesterday, the transaction will be completed over the coming week.

Church’s Chicken restaurant on Camp on Middle Streets

The SEAF Fund, which member of AMCHAM Guyana, is a private equity fund that invests growth capital in small and medium-sized enterprises throughout the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean Common Market (CARICOM).
This investment management group, which is headquartered in Washington D.C., provides growth capital and business assistance to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging and transition markets, underserved by traditional sources of capital, a statement from SEAF explained yesterday.
Camex Restaurants Inc. is Guyana’s largest restaurant operator boasting some 28 franchise/locations spread across Guyana with five brands including Church’s Chicken, Dairy Queen, Pollo Tropical, Mario’s Pizza and Quiznos.
Founded in 2006, Camex has grown from “strength to strength”, employing at its peak a staff complement of over 380 team members—of which approximately 80% are women.
“It is recognized as a good corporate citizen and has developed a reputation for delivering service and quality products that Guyanese love,” the statement indicated.
Having established presence in Guyana, its founder Terrence Campbell stated that he felt that it was time to bring in an international partner to drive through the next phase of growth.
“The investment in Camex is the first for the SEAF Fund which was launched last October with its regional office in Kingston Jamaica. With this new partnership, Camex plans to develop and add new brands to its portfolio, whilst simultaneously expanding operations across the CARICOM region,” Campbell related.
Campbell said that “from the initial discussion to the closing, SEAF executives operated with utmost good faith and made me comfortable that the company I built and, most importantly, the employees are in safe hands.”
According to the statement, Campbell will remain very actively involved in the business as Executive Director while Lisa Insanally assumes the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO).
Further, the new Board of Camex Restaurants Inc. will be chaired by Kurt Kisto and comprise of Directors Terrence Campbell, Jennifer Cipriani, Leo Williams, Floyd Haynes and Zulfikar Ally.
“SEAF is proud to have established the SEAF Caribbean SME Growth Fund, and to be able to play a catalytic role through making available private equity, accompanied with expertise to facilitate the growth and expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises in CARICOM,” the statement concluded.

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