Musson Jamaica Limited is still wrangling with Jamaica Redevelopment Foundation Inc over ownership of the Highgate brand, but the Desmond Blades operation, with the help of a sister company, has forged ahead with plans to launch into business as a...

Musson, a family-run operation, this month placed on the market its own line of chocolates, packaged in at least three sizes under the name Serge, a brand owned by Seprod.

Blades and his companies own about 43 per cent of Seprod, but the deal will see Musson paying a licensing fee for use of the Serge name.

Paul Scott, deputy chairman of Musson and grandson to Blades, sidestepped questions on why the company had launched its chocolate under the Serge name instead of Highgate.

"Serge is a very strong brand name and we supportit and advertise it," Scott told the Financial Gleaner.

"We want to develop and deepen Serge in the market."

But on Tuesday, sources close to bad debt collector JRF, which is owned by Beal Bank of Texas, said lawyers for Blades and JRF were still wrangling over rights to the Highgate name, effectively tying Blades' hands.

"It's still unresolved, still a legal matter, but not in court," said the source.

Blades two years ago laid claim to ownership of the Highgate brand saying he had acquired it from Claude Clarke - for whom Musson then acted as distributor.

Clarke's business, Highgate Foods, crippled by large unserviced bank debts, which were included in the bad debt portfolio sold to Beal by the Jamaican Government, was subsequently taken over by JRF.

The bad debt collector invoked a debenture held as security against the loans in 2006.

One real asset

At the time of the takeover, Highgate Foods was about $100 million in debt, said our sources, with no working capital.

But the stressed company was thought to have one real asset - its chocolate brand which JRF had hoped to leverage in the sale of the business or its assets.

Those plans were scuppered by Blades' claim.

Scott told this newspaper at the time that Musson planned to put Highgate chocolates back on the market.

Instead, the confectionery has hit the shelves under the Serge name - a brand most prominently associated with milk, but also fruit-flavoured drinks.

Vague

The use of the brand, which belongs to Seprod's wholly owned subsidiary Serge Island Diary Limited, is under a licensing arrangement between Seprod and Musson.

The new Serge chocolate is manufactured in Trinidad, but Scott declined to comment on details of that deal, including the name of the manufacturer and volumes produced.

The chocolate's wrapping was equally vague, disclosing only that the chocolate is "manufactured in Trinidad for Musson Jamaica Ltd."

Scott said Musson had considered building its own manufacturing plant but decided that it was more feasible to contract out the job overseas.

Serge chocolate's limited appearance on shelves about two weeks ago was, he added, the product's soft launch.

The big launch is in another five to six weeks, when the chocloate is to be channelled through some 3,000 retail outlets, backed by a marketing and advertising campaign.

"We are going to invest what is necessary," said Scott.

History

Paul Scott, deputy chairman of Mussons Jamaica Limited and director of Seprod. - FILE

He said close to US$500,000 was invested in the inventory, but did not disclose the full investment in getting the product to the Jamaican market, where Cadbury Chocolate dominates.

Cadbury, incidentally, was a chocloate manufacturer in Jamaica up to the 1970s. Clarke acquired its manufacturing assets when the company pulled from production in Jamaica, and launched into the business himself.

Clarke was successful in building a strong brand in Highgate, but failed to excite the market when he attempted to expand into high-end chocolates. His chocolate store Roxianna was short-lived.

Hoping for major share

Highgate has been off the shelves now for more than two years.

Scott says Musson has not given up on plans to return the chocolate to the market, but for now, is going after the business using its 'Serge' strategy.

"Between now and Easter, we hope to get a major share of the market," Scott told the Financial Gleaner, adding that Musson came to market just ahead of the Christmas season, a peak season for chocolate consumption.

business@gleanerjm.com