WESTERN BUREAU:
JAMAICA'S BID to penetrate international markets with indigenous products is getting a push from the United Kingdom-based Trade Development Project (TDR).
Chief technical adviser with the TDR, Brian Buckley, says in the six months that it has been in operation in Jamaica, "our project has been approached by over 150 enterprises seeking assistance." Of that number, "so far we have said yes to 15; we're working directly with them and we are on a continuous assessment basis with other companies."
Island Grill is among those companies benefiting from the support of the Trade Development Project. "The first thing is that bringing a concept of Jamaica as a manufacturing base, as a service provider, to the international world is very, very important to us," says Mr. Buckley. He adds, "not only are we promoting a food chain but we are also promoting the products that are made here in Jamaica -- the jerk seasoning, the various ingredients that go into the festival, the vegetables that go into the cole slaw -- bringing all of these to the international market."
He sees significant spin-offs from the support given in marketing and promotion as well. He believes that the exposure will create interest also among people who have not been to Jamaica, causing them to go in search of the products at the gourmet stores and supermarkets.
That, he says, "will add to the value of the country and will promote Jamaica as a country which suffers maybe a little bit harshly from the media from time to time over certain activities that occur in many other parts of the world as well."
Mr. Buckley says he is very confident that Jamaica could deliver.
The Trade Development Project has a four-year plan for Jamaica. The agency is already ahead of its schedule and this year alone, the TDR expects to help at least 20 companies, having gone through a thorough diagnostic of their operations and developing their business plans. Ten of those companies will be implementing their business plans.
Island Grill, opened its fifth store in Montego Bay last Saturday and is looking towards major expansion locally and internationally over the next five years.
The next Jamaican store in the chain is slated for Ocho Rios. However, Island Grill stores should be springing up in Britain and the USA in the next few years. managing director Thalia Lyn says, "We have a five-year plan. We hope to have at least eight restaurants in Florida within the five years. We're going to Birmingham (England) as well and that five-year plan also takes into consideration that we'll probably have between eight and ten restaurants there and from those two starting points we know that we can expand to the rest of the world."
Mrs. Lyn said "of course we will continue to expand in Jamaica" but the company is already being approached to grant franchises overseas and while that is seen as the way forward, the matter is being given careful thought.
The local fast food chain is going forward with the endorsement of US Ambassador Stanley McLelland. He believes his endorsement of a Jamaican company "is very appropriate.... because this is what trade is all about, it is not about products emanating from the United States and coming down here."
He said he was very proud that US fast foods were springing up across Jamaica "but a critical part of the trade is to identify those products, services and items which are uniquely Jamaican and help people who have the imagination and the entrepreneurial skills and ability to risk their own money and money that they've borrowed from other people and have the courage to go out and export what has succeeded here."
