By Andrew Green, Staff Reporter 
Blue Power managing director Dhiru Tanna on the production line. - Contributed
WHEN SEPROD exited laundry soap production nearly a decade ago, a yawning gap was left in the market for imports to fill.
With 11 people at a former hardware store in downtown Kingston, entrepreneur Dr. Dhiru Tanna aims to take that back with his Blue Power soap.
"Jamaica has the largest soap market in the Commonwealth Caribbean," Dr. Tanna said. It is more than enough for his company.
"I have a very low cost operation," he said. The actual making of `soap is an energy intensive operation that can be done more efficiently `elsewhere, so he imports the soap in pellets. At the factory this is mixed with colour and scents, moulded and then cut into bars.
The domestic consumption of laundry soap is 30,000 cases per month, with each case having 72 bars.
"I now have less than 10 per cent of that market," he said. The target is to have 15 per cent by next year.
"That is our break-even point. My anticipated level of sales has not come in yet."
To gain market share, he is now taking on producers from Costa Rica, Colombia, Dominica, and Guatemala. Their brands such Freshness, Ajax, Ideal, as well as the market leading Blue Bomber, are already firmly entrenched here.
Against them he offers a product which he says is not only better, but as much as 15 per cent cheaper. These issues are critical in the battle to get shelf space for his product. Calls to a small sample of supermarkets across the island showed few stocked the soap, but is was sold for less than other brands when compared by weight.
Market acceptance of the product is also being built by working with distributors such as Facey Commodity, Lasco Distributors, Kendel Trade and Barco Caribbean. Through them he distributes Blue Power, Lascare Blue, Supersud and Tops brands.
One innovation which draws from tradition is the re-introduction of the extra-long laundry bar, called Blue Power Big Bar. The combined length of six laundry bars, at the very least it is expected to draw the attention of older consumers who still remember soap being sold in this manner.
Introduced locally over the past century, cheap laundry soap created a revolution in cleaning, so that few Jamaicans now can imagine the rigours of the washing without such cleaning agents. But the introduction of powdered detergents has gradually replaced soap at the top end of the market with the increased use of washing machines.
In many other parts of the region, laundry soap use has been in decline, but not so in Jamaica, he said. "It doesn't seem to be getting that much smaller here."
Blue Power Limited, started operations only in January, with partners Kenny Benjamin, Tony Hart and Peter Milligen along with Dr. Tanna.
"It is a low margin product," he said. But their operation makes sense because of the substantial local market. ``Why get involved in a "low margin" product, which even a manufacturer like Seprod decided to stop making?
"The downside risks are minimal," he said. He and his partners already had a location at Victoria Avenue in Kingston which they wanted to continue using, as well as the staff from the hardware store they had closed at the location. ``Also, his family had been in the soap making business for decades, so he had access to the required technology.
One small problem arose as they worked out the kinks in production. He found that their equipment which should have been adequate to manage an output of 15,000 cases of soap per month was not up to the task.
After its long sea voyage, the soap pellets arrived with the moisture content too low for the standard processing procedure. Water had to be added during processing and the soap had to be milled twice.
To overcome this bottleneck, he said, "We ordered another mixer and another rolling mill." ``The purchase of that machinery has added to the capital costs, but it will create a smoother, faster production process, he said. Rather than running the soap through the equipment twice, the extra equipment means the soap can now be made in one continuous process.
It would harm the prospects of the business if distributors found that he could not fill their orders in good time, Dr. Tanna said.
"My output is small now and I can fill any order. But I am anticipating that business will pick up as we go along."
Next month, Blue Power is also to be exported to New York for distribution in the United States.
The ultimate goal is to capture 30-40 per cent of the local market, he said. "I am getting ready for that."
