Gary Matalon
Jamaican Business Mogul Gary Matalon on Travel, Networking and Usain Bolt's Tracks & Records
Freo de Janeiro Ep. #6
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Background:Gary Matalon (@gmatalon) is an innovator and trend-setter in his field, he has made a name for himself as a business mogul that is eager to take on new adventures and revolutionize the way business is done in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. His greatest moments throughout the years have ranged from founding successful businesses and starting his family.
In 2008, Gary co-founded the Kingston Live Entertainment Group (KLE Group), with his wife, Tina and a group of business partners. As Director and CEO of the KLE Group, Gary is responsible for the development of premium lifestyle and entertainment establishments, such as Fiction Lounge and Famous Nightclub, restaurants, namely Usain Bolt’s Tracks & Records and more recently luxury real estate - BESSA.
Under his direction, the group manages the flagship Usain Bolt’s Tracks & Records restaurant in Kingston, with two others under franchise agreement in Ocho Rios and Montego Bay. The first international Usain Bolt’s Tracks & Records restaurant opened in London in November 2018. This is the first of 15 slated for the UK to be rolled out over the next 10 years as a part of a Multi-Unit Development Agreement with a large restaurant group.
Gary is also the Director for FRANJAM, a franchise company that was founded to own, develop and license Jamaican themed restaurants. FRANJAM creates opportunities for investors by way of buying into the Jamaican franchise concept
In 2017, Gary signed an intellectual property deal with Downsound Entertainment to launch the Sumfest Acoustic Cafe franchise concept - a fast-casual restaurant and bar, offering a 360-degree Jamaican experience – atmosphere, taste, music and vibes.
A family man first, however, Matalon will claim some of his greatest successes to be the persons around his dining table. He is the proud father of three children, Sydney, Jacob and Haley and the husband of Tina Matalon, his partner in work and life.
Gary and I had a great wide-ranging chat about his passion for Jamaica, business, sport, music, building relationships and much more.
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Full Transcript
This was transcribed and therefore might contain a few typos. With some long episodes, it's difficult to catch some minor errors. Enjoy!
Abid Imam: Gary Matalon, it's an absolute pleasure to have you join me and usually when we have a guest, we start in chronological order. But I want to actually talk about how we met each other and it was in Rio during the 2016 Olympic Games. What do you remember from that moment?
Gary Matalon: I recall as it were yesterday, I was with my brother in law, we were looking to grab something to eat. And we we ran across you. It was in a restaurant, a Brazilian restaurant, I recall and we, we had a quick chat you realize immediately that we were from Jamaica. And I think we went straight on to discussion about Usain Bolt who was splattered across all of the newspapers in Rio because of his good time that he had the night before (laughs). With some ladies on that side of the world, so it was..yeah we got a good joke. We got some good laughs and was great meeting you at that point.
Abid Imam: I see it exactly the same way, Gary, and it's funny because you were going into the restaurant I think and I had just left and I wasn't in my usual sense of consciousness because what happened was I was at a rodízio restaurant, which is for people listening, a Brazilian all you can eat absolute endless feast of meats, gourmet salads, incredible food. And it's a real challenge, you know, because you go two or three hours of just eating incredible food. So I was not walking out of the restaurant, I was more waddling out. And being during the Olympic Games, you know, that were people everywhere, and I had to get my composure, but then you specifically took my attention because you're wearing the full on Jamaican tracksuit and that's the Olympic track suit. And I'm such a big fan of track and field. So I had to stop you and say, you know, where did you get that from? And then as soon as you started talking, it was perfect, you know, from Jamaica, and we had that conversation.
Gary Matalon: Absolutely, it was a good time I thoroughly enjoyed that whole exercise. I mean that whole experience was amazing because of course, you know, Usain had just done what nobody else in the world had ever done before and won the triple for the third time, you know the 100m, 200m and then 4x100m. So, for us it was such an amazing moment, you know to actually be there in real to witness it. First time, was like, I mean I can't even put it into words, it was beyond anything I've ever experienced before.
Abid Imam: It would have been a really proud moment for you to be there. Did you get to enjoy Rio and see a bit of the other sports at the Olympics. What was your experience like?
Gary Matalon: We did, it was a good time. Aside from from unfortunate pickpocket incident that we had in the early part of the trip. It was really a flawless vacation. I mean, it was a good time we actually made it to the Maracanã stadium. I don't know if you're a big football fan, we were able to see Brazil against Germany, which was an amazing, amazing experience to see Brazil play in an Olympic finals in Brazil. So that was that was pretty incredible. And I won't forget that. No, of course, lot of the events that we saw were really kinda truck and field based. We didn't get to much outside of the football and on the track.
Abid Imam: You've spoken to the right person because I'm a huge football fan. So I was in the city at that time. And it was the context behind that game. So interesting. Because I was in Rio two years earlier, and that's when Brazil had lost to Germany 7-1 so everyone really wanted revenge against the Germans.
Gary Matalon: Exactly. Yeah, man that was and we just couldn't believe that we were actually gonna get to experience that, you know. And then of course, they ended up winning and that was just. It was bizarre. It was such an amazing energy in there. Now of course, the Jamaican jerseys not too far off for the Brasilian jersey so we fit right in.
Abid Imam: Yeah, same with Australia. It's all about the green and gold. Was it your first Olympic games as well to attend?
Gary Matalon: No, it wasn't I had actually been to London in 2012. I didn't make it to the Far East. When he broke his records and everything. I wasn't there for that, but I did make it to London 2012. And that was an amazing experience there with him, with Usain that is and then of course, Rio in 2016. And we did all the world championships in between those as well.
Abid Imam: You've mentioned Usain Bolt there a couple of times. Those amazing Olympic Games. We'll talk about that further later. But Gary, we'd like love to get to know about your upbringing in Jamaica, if you can paint a picture for the listener about some of the beginnings of your life growing up, what are your great memories?
Gary Matalon: Ah, man, I always find this to be one of the more difficult questions that I get in interviews, but it's, uh, you know, to try and sum up a childhood is a challenge, you know, and do it any kind of justice but I I was born in Jamaica and 1974. So my great grandfather was the one who immigrated to Jamaica. I guess he would have been 30s 40s I have I couldn't even tell you right now, exactly when that would have been and of course, my grandfather was one of 11 children. And quite a few of them went off to fight in World War Two and then came back to Jamaica after the war and got together and started our business. So, we had a family business with the first generation of that family business being quite large. And they became very successful in various industries, in manufacturing and trading, they were in financial services. So there was quite a bit also, you know, trading commodities and stuff like that. They did quite well and then my father's generation, which as you can imagine, with such a big, what I call first generation, that second generation became quite, it was ginormous, right? And, you know, I kind of grew up in that environment. It was very close knit, very large, very dominant family that was doing big things in the country.
I was fortunate to be around a lot of really influential people that are really successful people. I mean, I had front row seats at the dinner table with with leaders of the country and opposition leaders of the country, you know, leaders of other countries, and it was quite an experience. Obviously, I didn't really understand the gravity of it at the time, I was young. You know, as a young kid growing up, you know, you'll really don't have a full appreciation for what that really means. But I guess looking back at it now. It was a very privileged childhood from that respect.
My family always as I kind of went through school and got into the summer jobs and then eventually, You know, post school getting into the working world, my family always felt that their philosophy was that you have to kind of start at the bottom. So, although I was kind of in a situation where I, you know, I had this kind of fortunate upbringing and then everything else, we were really kind of put out in the field too, to learn the hard way and yeah, had some not so glamorous jobs along the way. I mean, I worked on the construction site. I worked, with the survey department, I worked with the sewer and water department. I went through kind of really the labor level jobs, you know, for a couple of years before and this was all kind of while I was going to university, you know, come home and do summers on the construction site. When I eventually graduated was when I got the first somewhat meaningful job in the family business, although still very kind of entry level and then just work my way up from there. I guess we're moving out that childhood now, but yeah, it was a good childhood, I have no complaints.
Abid Imam: From the learning that you had through the business, as you mentioned, the education was a big part of it. And from the research I've done, there is a real theme of innovation, you were yearning to innovate. And that meant you made a step to leave the family business and to create, can you walk us through that that period in your life as well?
Gary Matalon: Sure. So, as I said, post my undergrad I got involved in the family business and I was doing that for, I guess, the better part of four or five years. I didn't want for anything. I had a reasonably good salary, I didn't have a lot of expenses. There was still something missing for me. And I think what happened is that, for whatever reason, I read a lot, I researched a lot, and I just felt as though there was so much more we could be doing it, you know, in fairness to my family's business, that business was founded in the 50s. And the construction business that is, was founded in 56. And it grew into a large company, and when I was working there, talking about 2000 employees, you're talking about major projects and stuff, so they were kind of an institution, it wasn't as nimble and as agile, entrepreneurial type innovative type organization, and I think where my head was that was, I just wanted to try new things. And of course, that didn't really translate into that organization so easily.
So what ended up happening was I started doing a master's degree online through University of Liverpool. And that just kind of blew everything wide open. I mean, at that stage of the game, I was getting further exposed to different concepts and I really just decided that this is going to be difficult for me and I wanted to see if I could do something on my own, and moved straight from there. I formed a project management company. So went for professional services because, of course, I felt that I could deliver a lot of value to potential customers. But, I didn't really have a whole lot to be able to invest in, a full on kind of a construction company or become a full on developer at that stage. So I opted to go with a professional services business and we got crankin in about 2005.
It was the early part of 2005. I formed a business with a partner who was a little bit older than me and has a bit more experience than me on the administrative and business side as well as on the project side. He was a he's an engineer. The company is still going strong today, in fact we moved from being this startup in 2005, to being the largest project management firm here in Jamaica. We work for a lot of big international clients and have built some significant projects here in Jamaica. We we focus primarily on construction and development, but we did do a software implementation for a large manufacturing business here in Jamaica as well. Quite a few years back. But yeah, so that was myintroduction into, into into my own business.
Abid Imam: How did you make your decision to undergo your study at the University of Liverpool?
Gary Matalon: It was interesting because I really wanted to get my master's degree at that stage. I had completed my my bachelor's and I was doing what I was doing within the family business, but I felt like I just wanted to to further my education, and the challenge I had was I really did not want to leave the working world and go back to to university. I just thought, even from a, just a burden on everybody else point of view, I didn't want to have to go back to school and work and go to school and to be in school for another, extended period of time. So, for me, it was more about, keeping the momentum. I was already in the working world I already had this energy to do so many different things. I thought all right, well, maybe I can keep doing what I'm doing and get my masters simultaneously.
So online degrees are what I was really interested in, more than even the University of Liverpool specifically, but why I ended up selecting University of Liverpool was that my research showed me that they were one of the first movers in the online master's programs and I like that their platform was relatively user friendly. Their whole user interface was kind of dead simple. I moved right into it seamlessly. And also like the British system because being in Jamaica, we follow more the British educational system than, say an American system and I think a lot of the other options for me were offered from American universities, and my undergrad was from an American University. So I felt that this would be a nice balance, a nice mix, a nice diversification.
Abid Imam: From that, if we fast forward a little bit more. So there is Fiction Nightclub. So I'm sure for Jamaican listeners, they're well aware of Fiction Nightclub and the success of that venture. Can you share to us how you made that first initial step into the nightclub game from the start that you had?
Gary Matalon: Yes. So that was interesting because the idea was introduced to me by a friend of mine who was working on the north coast of Jamaica, very close in proximity to where I was building a large housing development. And what happened was that he and I both spent quite a bit of time on the north coast while he lived there, and I was there by at least one or two days a week and you know, we go out at night, we'd have dinner, we do different things. I was away from my family at that point, because I'd be over on the north coast. So I spent a lot of time with him. He was saying he had this idea that they will want to build this nightclub and they needed some investment. And I said to myself, when I looked at the whole idea, I thought I was looking for things to invest in, and this wasn't really kind of one of them that was in my kind of thought process, nightclubs were the furthest thing from my mind, other than what I like to do on the weekend. But, I thought about it, and I said, you know, worst case scenario wasn't a hell of a lot of money. And I said, worst case scenario is we probably have a lot of fun doing it. You know what I mean? So, we gave it a shot and at that stage, it was really intended to be just a straight financial investment for me. So getting into the planning of it, put the money in the pot and started kind of planning it out. And of course on the design and buildout side, of the group of founding members, there were six of us. Of all of us, I had the experience in the construction and stuff like that. So of course, I, by default, got thrust up into the front line on the buildout side and the design or whatever else. We got that pretty much completed. And when we started operating, you know, immediately out of the gates, we were a tremendous success because I think we filled a very kind of big need, there was a gap. There was a huge gap in that kind of social landscape in Jamaica at the time, and especially for a product as sophisticated as Fiction was, I think what happened was the people in that industry before we entered that industry, we're all the mindset that oh, this can't work in Jamaica, that can't work in Jamaica and Jamaica this, Jamaica that.
We really kind of did things very differently because we're an island, we're in the Caribbean, because we're not, these kind of first world major markets. And we didn't buy into that. We had all been away to school and we knew that, we had been exposed to different things and we knew that was enough of us being people of like mindedness, that we were willing to give it a shot. And we built this really kind of state-of-the-art nightclub with VIP booth. I mean, none of that had ever been seen in Jamaica before. Bottle service and all of that stuff which was commonplace in big markets around the world but for Jamaica was like, What what are these guys doing? This is crazy. And yeah, we did it and it was a tremendous success. So, what ended up happening immediately out of the gates is that we found that we needed to really kind of improve our whole back of house systems and controls. I mean, none of us were really in that industry to begin with. And, you know, we kind of opened and we're getting our butts kicked. And that was something that was very exciting for me, and very interesting. And I was able to dive in there and actually design the kind of back of house systems and controls and implement the technology. I had previously done the software implementation through the project management firm that I told you about. So of course, we went ahead invested in the best of the management system that existed for that industry and implemented that and before long we had a really, really amazing operation.
So, here it is, on the on the demand side, we're bursting at the seams, we're turning back a couple hundred people every night. On the supply side, we're running smooth as can be, cost of sales on point, the laborers, the staff, the team in place is happy as can be. They're making good money. It just really became a tremendous success. And then of course, on the PR side, we were the flavor of the month. You know, we owned both newspapers and at that point in time, social media wasn't as big a thing, we're talking about 2008, 2009, 2010 you know, Facebook was just kind of coming into play, there wasn't as much Instagram presence. I don't even think it existed to be honest with you. But certainly, whatever existed at the time, we were it.
And I think it was about a year into Fiction that the founding partners, we got together and we decided we were going to a trade show in Las Vegas to see what else was going on in the industry. And it was at breakfast in Las Vegas that I said to the group, do we want to ride this out for the lifecycle of the club? You know, and just continue to enjoy it as we're enjoying it now or do we want to leverage this success on to something else? And at that point in time, I think it was pretty unanimous. Maybe we were intoxicated from the success that we're having in the nightclub but it was unanimous at that stage that we were going to try and leverage the success that we were having on to other things.
Abid Imam: Was it tempting to expand Fiction Nightclub or were you conscious about diluting the experience or the nightclub and then you thought about going to another idea of a business or why was Fiction Nightclub not expanded?
Gary Matalon: Well, so yeah, it was very tempting. It was very, very tempting. I think that what had happened was when we really looked into it, there were a lot of things about Fiction, in its current form, and in its current location, that contributed to its success. And we fared that it was going to be very difficult to kind of replicate that situation. One major factor was that the market that we operate in here in Kingston, there's not a massive amount. In other words, they're talking about the demographics, right? There is not a massive amount of disposable income distributed widely across the population. Right.
So what ended up happening is that we kind of owned our market, but it's a relatively small market. In terms of volume in terms of amount of people. Sowhereas we had an insanely successful business, operating with high margins as a very premium offering, it wasn't necessarily something that you could scale across the island. There was talk of maybe going into Montego Bay, which is on the other side of the island, which a lot of people locally referred to as a second city. But even their markets that would be the equivalent of the market that we started in Kingston, that market I think was even that much smaller than Kingston's market. So it would have been very risky to try and take the actual Fiction brand and scale it too much further beyond where where it kind of was, you know.
Abid Imam: Okay, I see what you're saying there. When people say this won't work in Jamaica, that must seem to really motivate you. But what do they mean by that? What is it about Jamaica that people think a certain thing won't work there?
Gary Matalon: So, you know what? you're hearing that a lot less nowadays. And when I came out the university, you could guarantee that you're going to hear that a couple of times a week from from leading business people across the island in different industries. And I think the reason for it was that, we were always considered the third world, we're always considered, you know, an island. Nobody really was moving towards contemporary, nobody was really moving towards, I think even at that time, the infrastructure you talk about when you talk about, just simple basic things like the public service, the electricity, the telephones, the road networks, all of it was kind of, we went through a period of stagnation. I mean, it was like we really weren't doing much as a country and I think we fell a little bit behind. And of course, It was easy for people to say, oh, Jamaica is not ready for that. Or that can't work in Jamaica. And that used to anger me and of course, when we started doing things like Fiction, you know, other people saw those things happening.
If you fast forward to 2019, 2020 I think, you look at a place like Kingston it's poppin, I mean, we have amazing restaurants and there's new ones opening pretty much feels like every week you know, there's tower cranes. If you look out over the landscape, there's tower cranes everywhere. I mean, there's hotels going up. It's a fun city. It is a fun city, and you're seeing a lot more progressive activity in the marketplace. And I think that as long as we can kind of retain our charm and not lose sight of that integrity of the culture and just our Jamaican-ness, which seems to be very polarizing to begin with. So I don't think that it's going anywhere for now, but certainly, I think there's a lot of potential for Jamaica. I mean, if you look at our land, land prices and stuff like that, they're a fraction of what they are in some of our neighboring Caribbean islands. So, yeah, Jamaica is at the ground level of a massive boom that is is on the horizon.
Abid Imam: I've never set foot in Jamaica, but I have this deep yearning to visit because of the incredible contribution Jamaica is made to culture worldwide, and I'm really interested to know from you, what is the essence of Jamaica? What is what is brand Jamaica all about as well?
Gary Matalon: Wow, that's probably about the most difficult question to answer in a sentence. I mean, I think that we could go on forever. But, you know, for me, Jamaica is really an amazing place. And as you point out the influence over the world, and you know, for such a small island, in the middle of the Caribbean, it really has had a lot of influence over a lot of things. And I think that comes from really the people I mean, Jamaica is about the people and you know, from our musicians or athletes to our other people that have made massive contributions to culture. I mean, I think that pretty much spans just about every area of arts, entertainment, business.
I think that really if you kind of want to boil it down to one thing, it really kind of comes from all people and Jamaica is if I was to say if you were to say what is brand Jamaica? To me it's a vibe. I mean, it really is. There's just something about the island from every aspect of it, even the physical land, a beautiful place. I've traveled quite a bit, you know, fortunate to visit some amazing places. I mean, you and I were in Rio together. How amazing is Rio. And I gotta say, you know, the island of Jamaica has some parts that are like nothing I've ever seen anywhere else in the world. I mean, just really, really phenomenal. And trying to give you the un-bias view. It's tough, obviously because I love my country but you know, if I'm to be as objective as I possibly can, I really would say that this country has so much going for it. From the physical beauty to the people that inhabit it. It's really an amazing place.
Abid Imam: Gary, I can feel that vibe from here, man. If I came and visited, if someone came visited for a week, what would you recommend that visitor has to do in Jamaica or see or eat?
Gary Matalon: I think well, that's a tough one because first of all, I don't think a week is enough time to really experience Jamaica properly. And I will tell you this, if you came for a weekend a time, over five or six different visits, you can have a completely different experience each time. It really depends on what you're looking for. I mean, if you're asking me about the beauty of the island, I would say that Port Antonio is like nowhere else. I mean, that's the farthest eastern point of the islands. That Island is kind of shaped. It's like a little oblong. It's 170 miles by 70 miles. And you think of the further east point of the island, you have Port Antonio, which is like just absolutely beautiful, but it's also very quiet. So if you're looking for the kind of wild crazy party experience, you wouldn't want to go to Port Antonio, you'd want to be more in Kingston or in Montego Bay.
If you wanted beach and sea and water I mean, out on the farthest west side of the island over by Negril is amazing. I mean like really really phenomenal. You have seven miles of white sand beach on that side. If you wanted to be more kind of in the guts of it, in the rural part and you know go and see Rasta man and smoke I spliff with him on the south coast, there's some really really beautiful spots there as well, by Treasure Beach and I mean there's so many different experiences that one could have in Jamaica. And all of them equally as phenomenal but, different.
Abid Imam: Is jerk chicken a bit of a cliche when foreigners mention it to Jamaican people?
Gary Matalon: Not at all, you can buy jerk chicken, jerk pork. I mean pretty muchif you drove if you drove around the island you'll find a few hundred places where you could buy you know authentic are really really delicious jerk pork and chicken. Some are better than others, like anywhere else you got, you know where to go. So some of the local knowledge helps in that regard. But certainly, I wouldn't say it's cliche at all. Certainly, it's well known. When you talk about Jamaica, people think jerk chicken, people think reggae music. I mean, those things, you come here, you're going to experience that, and pretty much everything that's associated with Jamaica in foreign perception is not too far off, with the exception of it being a dangerous place, which is our perception that I hate. And it drives me crazy because of course, I live here and I raise a young family here and I think it's one of the greatest places in the world. I mean, obviously there are parts of Jamaica that I wouldn't suggest you go at night by yourself. But I think that exists anywhere in the world you go, I mean, there's nowhere I've ever been where that doesn't exist. And for whatever reason, I think we really have a bad rap. Unnecessarily bad rap where the crime and violence is concerned. I mean, I don't live here in any form of fear whatsoever and to be honest with you, what I see going on in the United States with some of the crazy things that have happened over there. I mean, I actually feel more comfortable being here in Jamaica than I do in most other places.
Abid Imam: I'm sorry for saying cliche about jerk chicken. The only reason is because in Australia we are the sufferers of many cliches, such as everyone likes to eat Vegemite, and everyone has a kangaroo in their backyard and shrimps on the barbie. Oh man, when I arrive, I just want to be smothered in jerk chicken. (loud laughter).
Gary Matalon: No man definitely, there's plenty of it here for you.
Abid Imam: Let's go back onto your journey with Fiction Nightclub, then the leveraging that was going to occur to to move to another step, tell us how that occurred for you?
Gary Matalon: So, as I said, the stage was really set, when when Fiction was going on and in its first couple years of operation. And as a result of that, we one, had generated a pretty healthy surplus that we could reinvest. And two, we were able to access financing, even though we didn't have a lot of security. I mean, other than the assets of Fiction, which really weren't of any great value, we were able to access some financing that allowed us to open our second business unit and that now was a concept. One of my partners was, or is still in the sports business, sports apparel and he supplies all of the local leagues, mostly football, but other sports as well the local leagues with their uniforms or whatnot. Because of his association with sport, he just felt that there was something we could do in the food and beverage business, and tie sports into it. And really kind of leverage all of that. And that's kind of where the beginning conversations about Tracks & Records came up. And Trucks & Records is a play on words, right? So you have tracks and records in the music industry, as well as you have tracks and records in athletics. And we felt that Jamaica was very well known, especially in thevinternational markets for its music and for its athletics.
At that time, Usain had just broken all the records and done what he had done in the world champs and in the Olympics and was really making a name for himself. And we decided at that stage of the game that we need to really try and take what we felt were the best elements of brand Jamaica, standardize it, package it and export it into into other markets for mainly for a lot of reasons that you and I have been discussing on this interview. And it's something that I'm extremely passionate about and everybody just kind of really bought in immediately. It was kind of was the obvious, we just felt that it was what we needed to do. And I actually approached a number of different people, because one of the challenges that we faced was that, at that stage of the game, you're talking about a group of young kids, you know, kind of, going to put together this restaurant and bar concept, and then export that into major markets. Sounds great on paper, but realistically, you're gonna go up against, you know, some massive multinational restaurant groups. We don't have that degree of expertise in industry. I mean, it's gonna be a challenge, and how are we going to really take on these guys in these major markets? Because one thing we know about about these large gateway cities and stuff is that it's extremely competitive. And and we're going to need to have some edge, some way shape or form. What is our kind of our selling proposition again, just be that we're Jamaican, and that's it?.
The other thing is that a lot of what had characterized Jamaican restaurant some stuff like that in these markets, because they already existed, it wasn't that we were the first to try and break into the these markets. But what was known about Jamaican restaurants in those markets is that there were known by bad service and inconsistent quality and inconsistent menus, you know, just things running out. I mean, it just weren't really, really well run. And the reason for that is that a lot of them were just kind of mom and pop type things, right? Nobody had really tried to take Jamaican cuisine and, you know, formalize it and really kind of get it into these markets properly as as far as we could see.
So we developed the Tracks & Records concept and we thought the way to break in to these markets and the way to get people's attention over and above spending, lots of money that we didn't have, was going to be through association with some of our Jamaican celebrities, people that had already kind of broken into those markets and made a name for themselves. And of course, being Jamaica is a relatively small community. We have very good relationships, I know firsthand a lot of Jamaican celebrities. So I was in immediate discussion with Sean Paul and Shaggy and Usain Bolt. And, you know, these guys who to international markets were more of a big deal, to us in Jamaica, they're the guy that lives on the corner. It's who you who you see at the KFC grabbing food on a Saturday afternoon, you know what I mean? So, for us, it was a simple conversation, but it really was, I think a good way to get some doors open for us. So,we eventually signed our intellectual property deal with Usain Bolt. And he got some equity in the business and we joined forces and use that to launch the first location which opened in April 2011 of Usain Bolt Tracks & Records.
Abid Imam: Well actually, I didn't know that it started that early in 2011. That's before the London games.
Gary Matalon: That's correct. Absolutely. We actually signed the agreement with him in October 2010. And, you know, at every opening of every restaurant that we've had, since then, I have always made the point that, you know, this partnership is really starting after he had done the triple single, not even the triple double, much less than triple, triple. So it was a bit of a gamble for us at that point. But certainly one that paid off tremendously for us. I think it was just something about him that he just knew that his spirit and his competitive nature and his talent. I mean, you're a sports enthusiast. I mean, his talent was just, you just couldn't, it was undeniable. So we took that the gamble with him at that point in time. And it's been a great partnership.
Abid Imam: You know, he's such an icon from 2010, to about 2016. I was working in athletics, and I was coaching at schools. And the beauty of it is that was when he was in the sport and every kid that I would coach in sprinting, I would talk about Usain Bolt and you'd see their eyes just glow with you know, they all know him and they know his trademarks. So it's quite incredible. Tell us about the growth of that now because it's it's not just in Jamaica. It's a worldwide thing. Well, it's in the UK now?
Gary Matalon: That's correct. Yeah, absolutely. So, I just returned from there last week. I think that for Usain, obviously getting into the deal with us was more based off our relationships than it was off of what we were able to offer him because I think, certainly his other deals that he's involved with endorsements and other things are far more lucrative than then we are yet at this stage of the game. But he's also very much a loyalist and he knows who kind of been with him since the beginning. He knows who has his back versus who's trying to exploit him and that sort of thing. And we've always really kind of maintained a really awesome relationship. And as a young group kind of starting out, trying to build a thing organically. We didn't have private equity behind us, we didn't have any real major financiers backing it. I mean, we really kind of built this thing organically from a 4500 square foot nightclub onto the first location of, of Tracks & Records, which was 6500 square foot. A growth option for us that was less capital intensive was a franchising model.
So we went ahead and invested in creating all of the operational documentation, you know, creating all of the brand guidelines and doing all the things that one would need to do to be able to franchise a business. We went through that exercise which, I don't think we've fully appreciated the scope of that exercise when we were getting into it, but certainly, we went through that and what that enabled us to do is to enter markets as you point out, like London. So we've built out three locations in Jamaica. I think Jamaica could potentially take another two locations, which we're hoping that next year, we will be able to find some good real estate for that expansion but, in London now, we signed a franchise area development what they call an area development agreement, or a multi year development agreement with a large restaurant group in the UK. And we opened our first restaurant in November last year, and it's quite a large restaurant. It's more than a restaurant. It's a restaurant, a bar and what we call a late lounge so it has like a basement level. It's 12,000 square feet, some double the size of the Kingston location. The ground floor where you enter the street level, that's 6000 square feet. So that's much closer in size to what we have in Jamaica. But then below, as I mentioned there's this basement level, which becomes more of kind of a high energy nightclub on the weekends. It's also because we're kind of located in a corporate area there, Liverpool Street Station in the city. What you'll find is that we have a lot of corporate hirings. So a lot of private hire takes place there. And companies are using that space for different social types of meetings. And it's a multi use space. So that's working out really well.
But as I mentioned, I just came back from there last week, and it was unbelievable. I was there for seven days and I was in the restaurant each of those days. And I'm telling you everything from the Monday, the Tuesday, the Friday, the Saturday, every day that I was in there, the energy was incredible. And it was one of the proudest moments for me in my career today to really kind of see it in full flight like that. And it's just very exciting coming into the Christmas we have a lot of bookings. I mean, the place is just really exciting to see that kind of, you know, you're going there, you hear the reggae music playing. In London, which is not known for having the best weather, right? So, you got this cold, rainy Saturday afternoon, and there's 200 people inside there. Everybody's smiling, everybody's having food and drinks and people are dancing and people, it was just a really, really good feeling to kind of see that happen, you know, and we're looking to see how we can expand that model based on the learnings that we've gotten after one year of operation. So next year is going to be an exciting year for us and we're certainly looking for other markets that we can enter as well. Toronto is right now at the top of the list. There are I think a lot opportunities for us on a global scale. We want to manage the growth so that we can make sure we don't lose control of it. It's most important for us to maintain the integrity of the brand and not compromise that much.
Abid Imam: What you were saying there was it made me think you went from no track record to Tracks & Records (laughs) I just got back from the UK myself. We were there for the Ashes. I don't know if you're a big cricket fan. But you know, the West Indies are a team we love and Chris Gayle is an amazing player we we respect greatly as well and we were there for the Australia versus England Test series, and went to Leeds, which is not the biggest city in the UK but respectful size. And we were staying in a place called Chapel Town, which is a an area with a lot of rich Caribbean heritage and people living there from from the islands as well. And it was during the Carnival period, and you would wake up in the morning and go for breakfast and have chicken that was really authentic, or what I thought was authentic West Indian places, and then go watch the cricket. And I felt, you know, this is this is telling me I need to go to Jamaica, but you could see the opportunity of Tracks & Records in places like that. You are going to be expanding to 15 places in the UK, wasn't it?
Gary Matalon: That's correct. Yes, that is true. As a starting point. I mean, I think ultimately, sky's the limit. That's definitely our focus right now. It's not necessarily the speed of the rollout but more the effectiveness of the rollout. I think it's gonna be more important that we get it right. We're relatively boutique outfits so that we can afford to really kind of control our growth as opposed to, it's not no pun intended, but it's not really a foot race for us. It's more it's more about getting it right.
Abid Imam: As you progress your business and they grow in scale. I'm interested in how you optimize your own time and productivity?
Gary Matalon: Yeah, I'm not sure that I do. (Laughs). That's actually very interesting. So my background is in project management and and I have really kind of tried as best as possible to implement a lot of project management strategies and methodologies to basically everything that I do. So I get criticized for being overly organized. And I think that, that helps in a big way. Because I think otherwise, in fact, to be quite honest with you, I'm not sure I even know another way, to me if something is not structured properly and planned out properly I find that it's nearly impossible to manage. And I think that certainly on a personal level. I try to have some method of tracking and managing everything that I have to do, or else it just doesn't get done. I say it every day, my brain is no good. If it's not written down somewhere,it's not plugged into my task manager or if it's not plugged into my calendar, it's not scheduled properly. I'm in trouble. I don't know that there's any overly unique, proprietary way of addressing it, but it's kind of how I deal with it.
Abid Imam: And then a key theme has been the relationships you've been able to cultivate through your career. How do you see people? Or what is your philosophy on developing relationships and then being able to see them flourish?
Gary Matalon: That's interesting because I think that our network is exceptionally diverse and just very valuableand it's all based off of relationships. So it's a really interesting question that you've observed that from there, but for me, relationships are everything. Yeah. And it has to be based off of honesty and trust. And it has to be coming from somewhere deeper down. I can't do superficial, I can't do artificial. It really has to be genuine. I think that is where the foundation of all of my relationships come from. And as I mentioned the diversity in my network. I really have great relationships with people from very, very varying backgrounds. It's served me well, I think that everywhere I go certainly in Jamaica and even outside of Jamaica, I'm able to establish some real genuine connections with some really, really great people.
Abid Imam: Gary, I know your time is valuable as you start the day. I have a couple more questions and it would be remiss of me not to mention someone who my mom loves and I was taken out of school early one day to go watch the cancert of this certain person. It's Shaggy, of course. What is it like to to actually have him in your network as a friend and how that relationship has grown as well with you guys?
Gary Matalon: So, Shaggy is one of my best friends for almost 25 years, and we've really kind of grown together along the way. My relationship with Shaggy started right around the time of Carolina, Boombastic. So would have been at the kind of the beginning stages of his career as well. And, and then, you know, beyond that he's had a lot of ups and downs, but he's done some tremendous, amazing things. He's a bit older than me. We just celebrated his 51st birthday last month, and he came to Jamaica for it and, and it was amazing. But we've traveled all over the place together, where our families are very close. His wife and my wife are very close. Our kids are very close. So, his eldest daughter he had one month to the day after my eldest daughter was born. So, my daughter is the 12th of March I think his daughter the 13th of April, it's like almost a month today and they're both named Sydney. And that was not planned they we didn't sit down and work that out right but, it's funny we get teased about it quite a bit.
He's had an amazing career. He fought in some wars is a veteran. He was in the US Marines. He's done some incredible things and where we've been kind of really collaborating since about 2008-2009. We've been collaborating on some charitable stuff here in Jamaica, we're raising money for the Children's Hospital, which is located here in Kingston. And that's been going quite good. He's had some massive shows that have raised a lot of money. I think at this point in time, we are nearing about probably about 400 million Jamaican dollars, which may sound a lot more than it really is to because of the Jamaican dollar, but we've raised quite a bit of have money here. We've done a lot of work for the children's hospital but it's great. Shaggy's a really, really down to earth, really cool guy. He's done exceptional things in music. He's a diamond selling artists. I don't think there's many artists that can claim that. Hot Shots record sold diamond. He's performed with everybody from Michael Jackson who's no longer even alive. He just went on tour with Sting last year which was incredible I had the fortune of seeing them in Spain perform together I went through that with them. I have been, oh man, all over. I can't even begin to tell you it's amazing.
He's a great you know, loves all his friends and buddies is really, really cool normal guy. You think that being such a massive superstar that he'd have better things to do than to worry about my four year olds graduation, you know what I mean? But he doesn't miss any of that. That's the things that are really important to him. And I think you know, as a result, I don't view him as anybody would view any us friends. Obviously, I don't ever lose sight of the fact of who he is and what a massive brand he is, in fact , you can because when you go out for dinner, you have to stop for pictures (laughs) and it's not something you can easily forget but, in truth, and in fact the way he is, and the way he is with with my kids and the way he is with his kids and his family. And it's really just a great thing and I wish everybody to have a best friend. You know somebody in their life that they can call a friend. And that can be genuine a person, you know, forget all other accomplishments in music and then everything else just really, really a good person.
Abid Imam: Gary, I love that you mentioned family there because I'm sure that's the the crowning achievement of life. And how do you view that, that balance now that life is busy with projects, things happening? And of course, family time, which is so precious, how do you balance those things?
Gary Matalon: I gotta tell you, that is by far the achievement of all achievements. I mean, I am so fortunate I give thanks every day. Very, very fortunate to have an amazing wife and three incredible kids. As I say, I give thanks for that every day. So we have I have my daughter, my first child is 14, 12 and four, so there was a there was a bit of a gap in the middle there, a whoops, what we call a Carnival baby. (laughs). But no, all three are amazing children and they're all very different. Both of the kids are doing exceptionally well in school.
And I think that really just have to give thanks for all of that. And the balance is tough because of course, there are a lot of demands coming from work and of course with three young kids at home, the demands at home also also pretty significant. But I am just extremely fortunate to have my partner in life who is so supportive, we really kind of work well together as a team. And I think that's where it's at. If you were to ask me, how do we do it? We work together on it. Nothing is easy. So it's really just a matter of managing the time.
But you know, we are fortunate enough to be able to go on nice vacations together and spend a lot of time together. So, we do the drop offs and pickups most days to school and we've spend pretty much most weekends, unless we're traveling for work or something like that. But we do spend a lot of time together at a family dinner at the dinner table every night of life together the family, which is great. I grew up like that, you know, and I know nowadays, we'll see that a lot less and less. And that's something that I definitely take pride in, you know, that we're able to that.
Abid Imam: You said that I think your daughter's name is Sydney if I was correct?
Gary Matalon: Correct. That's absolutely correct.
Abid Imam: You know what that means. You have to bring her over to Australia and show her the real city.
Gary Matalon: Absolutely 100%, for sure, that's right. 100%. Correct. (laughs).
Abid Imam: And make sure that when you do come to Australia, give us some love on the west side, Perth, Fremantle, we'd love to welcome you as well. Gary and family.
Gary Matalon: I appreciate that man. I mentioned to you earlier it is on my bucket list. It's the top of my bucket list. I'm very much looking forward to that.
Abid Imam: Well, Gary, it's been an absolute pleasure. I was really excited to speak to you, because we met all those years ago, but it is good to link in and discuss our different cultures. We're so far away from each other. But really interesting and the love for sport is something that brings us together as well. And music too. So Gary, thanks for your time. I look forward to being in touch as well. You have a good day.
Gary Matalon: I appreciate it and the pleasure was mine. I look forward to seeing you in Jamaica in the near future as well. Thanks a lot man.
Abid Imam: Appreciate it.