Barbara Ellington, Lifestyle Editor
Christopher Coleman, JamGuy's CEO, believes that if you want something you should align yourself to an expert and volunteer to work for free so that you can learn what they know.
CHRISTOPER COLEMAN is a Kingston Technical High School graduate who, fresh out of school, went to Jamaica Packaging where he gained valuable experience. But in school, he learnt a valuable life lesson - "when you take a job, learn everything about it even at your own time and expense." His teacher explained that when time came for promotion, you would be in line, having learnt all the areas.
At Jamaica Packaging, he started in the Accounts Department, working alongside the planning manager and chief supervisor, and volunteered to learn on the job. When the supervisor migrated, he was promoted to production supervisor when he was a mere 19 years old.
He subsequently acted in all managerial positions when co-workers went on extended leave. He also got the opportunity to do sales; getting to know the customers. During that time, young Coleman discovered his knack for sales, he even redesigned the size of the packaging boxes he was selling to suit customers' needs. This approach led to more promotions until it was felt he needed to be married to progress further. Four months later, the forward thinking Coleman married his high school sweetheart.
After eight years at the company, he resigned to start his own business because he saw where there was a need for tapes to secure packaging boxes. He switched to manu-facturing when things got rough but he was so cash strapped, he borrowed $15,000 from his brother to buy stock and helped with staff wages. He has done it - from salesman to delivery man to driver.
BE: Where did it all start and how long have you been in business?
CC: My first company was Tapes Jamaica Limited. I founded it to sell packaging tape among other related items. At that time we brought in goods from the United States weekly. The dollar was at five to one but it jumped to nine to one so fast everyone with money on credit lost their shirt.
I was still working for someone else and my capital was my salary; there was no money or collateral to take a loan. I bought some supplies and stacked them under my mother's dining table while on the road for Jamaica Packaging.
A friend of mine was a manager at Geddes Grant and he gave me goods on credit and my sales picked up to the point where what I made at my job in a year, I made in a month selling tapes, so I resigned and I have not looked back since 1986.
Based in the industrial area of Kingston, I vowed to go into manufacturing and specifically packaging because nothing can be moved without packaging. I ventured out because I saw how much money the companies were making. I added printing jobs to my business and I employed one sales person. I had an old VW bus from whose floor you could see the road surface below. In spite of jeers, I got some body work done and I worked it till I was able to employ a driver to do the deliveries and I could afford a car.
BE: How many employees did you have at that time?
CC: I had one lady in the office, one sales person, the delivery man and myself. I began to advertise for sales staff and we went up to five. Today, I have a team of the best staff in the world. There is genuine care for what they do and we bottle all products with love.
BE: What was the schedule like back then?
CC: The business grew and I used to leave Jamaica every Monday morning on the first flight, buy goods in Miami and return at 4:30 p.m.
I realised I was buying most of the tape from T. Geddes Grant and one Monday while shopping in Miami, I saw the company that carried the brand. I went in, introduced myself, gave them my card and told them I sold their tape in Jamaica.
I told him I would love to buy directly from them but they said no I had to buy from Geddes whose contract would be due for renewal in four months.
I asked them to sell me one shipment and if I moved it within the period, I would love to be their second supplier in Jamaica. They said no. I was leaving the building and shaking my head in disbelief when they called me back and said they'd give me an opportunity because I had the gall to come in and challenge a big company.
Six months later I was given the contract to bring the tapes into Jamaica. We sold all over the island and I began to get up to US$20,000 credit from the banks. I used to have to carry up just enough foreign exchange to my goods. But a friendly American buy took me to his bank to open an account in Florida.
I saw an advertisement for a van and when I checked it out, the owner was Chinese; I paid him cash and two weeks later he returned with a bottle of soy sauce. He told me he made it but because of the violence in Jamaica, he wanted to return home. I tasted it and it was fantastic.
BE: Where was this man from?
CC: He was from Guyana and he wanted to go back home so he was willing to sell his sauce to someone who could carry on the business. I went to the factory which was just two rooms, at 10 Christopher Terrace, my present location. He had two workers making the sauce in a huge soup pot on wood fire. I told him I'd buy the sauce business in two instalments provided he taught me the recipe. His family was from China and they had moved to Guyana years ago. He got permission to teach me the 100-year-old recipe which followed the method of processing and ageing soy beans. I took samples to my previous employees and got an order for 200 cases. It was phenomenal so I went to West Indies Glass to source bottles.
I was unknown in the business but I was honest with clients who helped by having invoices ready so I could get paid early enough to fill other orders.
BE: Where did the name JamGuy come from?
CC: The owner was from Guyana and having come to Jamaica to set up business, he wanted the name to reflect both countries. We acquired more pots but the heat from the coal and wood fires was unbearable. We also did not know about the Bureau of Standards compliance until one day about four of their representatives arrived at our factory in white lab coats.
They had come to shut us down at a time when I had bought the first truck and we had business from a few large distributors. That was a testing time. I levelled with them, told them I did not know about standards but would give them full co-operation. I told them that if they closed me down, I would not be able to make a living and I gave them some samples to take back for testing.
The results were excellent; they gave me guidelines about setting up the factory; started the process of registration and were very helpful. They invited me to sit courses, taught me requirements and standards for food processing and I did it all willingly. I was finally a manufacturer! The courses were very helpful and I learnt a lot from the Food Technology Institute.
BE: So with the sauce doing well, did you make other products at that time?
CC: We started to introduce other products because we were bottling browning and vinegar for other distributors as well. Major brands sent us their labels and we manufactured for them.
BE: Did the cash flow situation improve at that time?
CC: I was banking with National Commercial Bank (NCB) Newport West at the time and I went to the manager with samples and he gave me an overdraft facility and told me to fax each order to them because fortunately for me most of the companies I supplied, also had accounts at that branch; my prayers were answered.
But we still had tough times; the interest rate on our loan began to grow and no matter how hard I worked I could not pay them off. I remember it climbing to 60 from 20 per cent.
I bought my first industrial kettle and we moved to gas instead of coal. We re-roofed one section of the building, added another bathroom and went up to six factory workers.
BE: What is the total staff complement now?
CC: I now have 48 but I remember the '90s when things got sluggish in the economy to the point where my wife suggested I get a job. I told her to get one instead and allow me to try to build the business. She went to sell insurance, and I continued filling dwindling orders for other businesses. We had to be calling to beg orders. I got labels designed, consulted the Bureau of Standards and started the JamGuy brand the same year that General Consumption Tax (GCT) was introduced.
We put a salesman downtown to work because I realised that was where everyone went to buy goods; I handled the St. Thomas area and the Chinese community bought from us but complained about our labels. I started a marketing course and the first thing it taught me was the importance of advertising so I redesigned the labels and sales took off.
BE: How did you recover from the financially turbulent '90s?
CC: I made the decision never to take any more bank loans. So I started over. You see, I had come from the ground before. When you fall, fall on your back because if you can look up, you can get up. I could see the sky so I could reach for it. I got up from the ashes and began to focus all my years of training. I ensured that my children were being properly educated.
I also focused on martial arts and became one of the best in the country; every tournament I participated in, taught me to cushion the daily stresses, to be calm and to seize opportunities. But most importantly, in fighting, it's not the attacker who wins but it's the one who thinks and creates openings. I began to meditate and spent hours picturing success and with each little one, I rewarded myself. I then trained my sales team to think the same way, to pray and imagine their success.
BE: How many products do you have now?
CC: We began with soy sauce, then we introduced food browning, vinegar and hot pepper sauce, but they were not selling fast enough to keep us going. We phased out all distributors except one. We spread out further afield and included ketchup because it was the fastest selling product on the market. I tried several different formulations, having learnt the base of sauce making. I began my experiments at home on my wife's stove.
Eventually I got the right modified food starch, tested the taste among staff and hit the market. We then introduced barbecue sauce, vanilla and others products. I had a disciplined approach and I took no salary from the company in those times, I just concentrated on necessary expenses. In 2000, we decided to go islandwide and put a sales representative in each parish. I pushed training, selling techniques and customer service. I taught them that they were a sales rep for the company but a manager of their own business.
BE: When did you begin the factory modernisation process?
CC: From 2000 to 2003, the business grew exponentially; every year we doubled what we did the year before. We had up to 80 workers doing flexi-shifts, 24 hours daily for two years and still could not keep up with demands using gas fired kettles. Customers had a long wait for orders to be filled. But goods were moving so I told the sales team to tell customers we were upgrading. I bought a boiler but our two trucks kept breaking down, so every cent went back into the business and in the last two years I have invested over $24 million. Now we have modern industrial kettles; a larger building that is still being expanded; newer vehicles and we have introduced jerk seasonings and steak sauce.
My business is in volume; I focus on the wholesale trade and avoid supermarkets; I sell to the masses because they are the ones who change the country. The Chinese wholesalers are our biggest support and I am very grateful. They have helped to grow a home-nurtured businessman who began under his mother's table and has now reached a comfort zone.
We now move the largest volume of ketchup in gallon, one and two-litre sizes. We just launched a roots drink, we have Irish Moss and we have bottled water to come. We could make many more products but the volumes have to justify production. We are grateful to the pan chicken people who support our jerk sauce.
BE: Where do you see the future of JamGuy?
CC: We are poised to take advantage of the export market and we are registering JamGuy Food Processors Export Limited to benefit from the Caribbean Single Market (CSM); we have production capacity to make 6,000 cases of product daily and we continue to improve production capability and internal efficiencies so we can give customers a more stable price. We want to give best quality, service and price to customers hence more efficient machinery and buying directly from overseas suppliers, to do better even in the face of a fluctuating dollar.
BE: What was your most difficult challenge?
CC: Running a business without financing knowing that you cannot borrow under the present regime and build the way you want to. You have to wait till you are at a place where returns are such that you do not have to borrow when you are in dire straits. We have a way to go.
BE: What about continuity; are your children involved in the business?
CC: Yes, my youngest, age 14, is at Calabar High School and he is a director of the company; my 16-year-old daughter is a sixth former and works on holidays with us; my 23-year-old son is our director of operations and he builds and installs all our computers and my other daughter Rene is studying overseas and is also a director. My wife Rosetta is a director and I will now be going back to school in September to study finance. The family is the foundation of life, the Chinese pass down businesses from one generation to the next and I am instilling that in my children from early to take over the reins of their own legacy rather than work for someone else.
BE: What would be your advice to a young person embarking in business?
CC: Align yourself to a successful person and volunteer to work for them for free while you learn everything that they know. Saving is key, put away something every week, no matter how small. Buy books, tapes and infomercials of successful people and study them.
BE: How have you been affected by crime, operating in the problem plagued Red Hills Road area and security costs?
CC: Crime is there but we are good corporate citizens in the community so we are not affected. We believe in discipline so we don't encourage idle hands on the premises. If community activities are taking place we help. Security poses a significant cost factor because we have to have 24-hour armed presence. It is a reality of doing business in Jamaica.
BE: What has been your biggest surprise in the journey?
CC: My ability to deal with people. I was never like this at the start but I have groomed myself to be able to work with people and instil good values in them. I was a fighter in school, I gave a lot of trouble but I have grown and as a fourth degree black belt karate expert and part owner of a karate school, we are now teaching martial arts to children to engender discipline in them.
BE: How do you relax?
CC: I train and play with my children and spend time with family, jog on the beach, watch football, go to vintage reggae concerts, do some rifle shooting and boxing. I also conduct a gym at work for staff.
