Dennise Williams, Staff ReporterWALKERSWOOD. THE name evokes thoughts of the cool hills of St. Ann and the company that produces jerk seasonings, sauces and chutneys. Think of formulations such as Calypso Chutney, Sorrel Chutney, Mango Paw Paw Chutney, Jonkanoo Pepper Sauce, Las Lick Jerk Sauce and Firestick Hot Sauce.
Registered in 1978, the company directly employs 90 persons at its Walkerswood headquarters and an additional 25 employees at its 20-acre farm and processing plant in New Forest, Manchester.
Walkerswood Caribbean Foods has 20 brands on the market and sells US$4 million per year. Their products are distributed in Jamaica, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzer-land and Germany. The company also has a UK restaurant called Bamboula and has attracted the attention of high-powered investors such as Canadian billionaire Ray Chang who has invested in a new seedling nursery to provide stock for the 2005 season.
And with thoughts of future growth, the company is in the middle of building a US$4.5 million factory to modernise their production processes to tap into greater efficiencies and more environmentally-friendly manufacturing techniques.
STARTED IN THE 70S
The Gleaner sat down with Walkerswood executives Woodrow Mitchell, managing director, and Johnny McFarlane, director of group development, to discuss the past, present and future of Walkerswood.
Mr. Mitchell looks back: "It all started in the 1970s. The Walkerswood Community Council was formed to create employment and opportunities for the residents in the area. It was very vibrant. Remember at that time there was a fall-out in bauxite and tourism. Tourists were staying away from Jamaica because of the Cuba business and the bauxite levy was resisted by that industry. And so there was a great push to develop self-sustaining projects; our members were made up of farmers, ex-tourism and ex-bauxite workers."
Something had to be done with idle hands. Thus Cottage Industries Limited (CIL) was born.
SOLD OUT OF A VAN
Mr. Mitchell added: "In conjunction with an expert in food technology from the Ministry of Agriculture, CIL developed a jerk seasoning for pork. We then sold the bottles out of a van and went to bars in the area. After a time we decided to go down to Ocho Rios and sell to gift shops and supermarkets. It sold well."
So pleasing was the formulation that tourists who tasted the product in Jamaica, had to have more when they returned home. "The demand grew. Tourists wrote to us asking for the product. We did not have a marketing or distribution firm abroad so we had to post the jerk sauce and they would then send us back the money."
Mr. McFarlance, at this point asserts, "We were the first Jamaican company to export and bottle jerk seasoning." By 1986, the company, still known as CIL, began to seriously export their products to North America and the United Kingdom.
But as demand for the products grew, the name CIL could no longer fit. Explains Mr. Mitchell: "Courtesy of JAMPRO, we began going to trade shows and because of the location of our operations, we were being called Walkerswood. After a time we realised that we had to change the name. So in 1998 we became a brand - Walkerswood Caribbean Foods."
Mr. McFarlane added, "It became a lot easier to say Walkerswood instead of Cottage Industries. Walkerswood evokes thoughts of a pristine environment and has a very nice ring to it."
And although talks of a CARICOM Single Market and Economy were not in an advanced stage in the late 1990s, it was a stroke of genius to add Caribbean Foods instead of Jamaican Foods. "Caribbean is a broad category of foods even though Jamaica dominates. We would like to do Trinidad and Tobago and St. Lucia formulations at some point in time," Mr. McFarlene said.
For now, though, it is Jamaica and Jamaican formulations that Walkers-wood is focusing on. Mr. McFarlene commented, "There is something about the Jamaican taste. It is the soil that gives our food the strong flavours, that beautiful taste. Just take the scotch bonnet for example. You can plant it anywhere, but unless it is planted here, the taste is completely different."
CHALLENGES
And this brings to light one of the challenges the company faces ensuring adequate supplies of locally grown produce. "We are deeply committed to using local produce wherever we can. The European Union and the USAID have recognised our efforts and the needs of the farmers who supply us. Along with the Jamaica Bauxite Institute, they have assisted our farmers to help us create our products."
And Walkerswood need for produce is great. Mr. McFarlane tells us: "In 2003, we used over two million pounds of red and scotch bonnet peppers. We used nearly three million pounds of escallion, of which only 80 per cent was locally sourced." Hence the problem. While working with farmers all over the island, it is challenging to get enough products. "In the next two to three years, when we look at the agriculture needs we will have, we have to increase the crops grown in Jamaica."
NEW VARIETY OF ESCALLION
To that end, Walkerswood has developed a new variety of escallion that grows well in their community and eases the dependence on the 'escallion belt' of St. Elizabeth. This is important because having only one local source can be crippling during a natural disaster. Mr. Mitchell lamented, "During Hurricane Ivan we didn't produce for three to four weeks. Those sales we lost, about $1 million, we can't get back."
Events such as hurricanes and inadequate raw materials created the need to modernise their operations and so a factory is now being built. An impressive structure, the new processing plant will, "transform the company', according to Mr. McFarlane.
The factory, which will be on stream by March 2005, boasts automated processing and bottling lines. And while in most cases modernisation means the loss of jobs, Mr. Mitchell tells The Gleaner that, "we will be canning ackee and collaloo. So these are very labour intensive areas and we will redeploy workers into that area. Additionally, the factory will have an onsite restaurant and a visitor arrival centre and factory tours. Therefore we will have a need for staff."
FARMERS TO BENEFIT
The new factory will directly impact the lives of the farmers who supply the company. Mr. McFarlane says, "The Environmental Foundation of Jamaica has given us a loan and a grant to make our plant reuse and recycle natural products. We will have biodigesters in a large underground that purifies wastewater from the factory. The new factory will also capture rainwater off the roof. This will go into a 20,000 square feet pond which becomes free irrigation for the 40 acres Bromley Pepper Farmers Group farm here in Walkerswood."
Farmers will also benefit from a new semi-processing plant to be developed in St. Mary. Again, Mr. McFarlane states, "We are hoping to set up the processing plant to cut down on the transport costs for farmers in St. Mary, Portland and St. Andrew.
COMMITTED TO BUILDING JAMAICA
The objective is to get the produce in drums. It is more efficient to have semi-processed drums coming to our factory than individual farmers driving from many miles to us. It will cut down on spoilage and transport costs for our farmers."
Obviously, the company is committed to building their company and brand Jamaica.
"Our profits are plowed back into the company. We have not used profits to get fat. What we earn has gone back to the company to buy machinery," Mr. Mitchell says. "And we are very committed to Jamaica and the selling of Jamaica. We fly the flag. Air Jamaica is our cargo carrier and we work with JAMPRO and the Tourist Board. The Jamaica ExIm bankers play a tremendous role; we couldn't operate without them. The National Commercial Bank is our lead bank and Lascelles DeMercado is our distributor. Jamaica is very much a part of who we are."
