– bottling, biscuits and rum plants to be opened
Some 250 jobs will be available on the local market when new bottling and biscuit plants open here by April of next year.
The $1.75B deal between the Safeco Group of Companies and Venezuelan company Mundial Maquinas C.A. was signed yesterday at the Roraima Residence Inn. The signing of the deal represents the beginning of the first phase of a two-phase investment for Caricom Bottling Company Inc.
Joshua Safeek (right)of Safeco Group of Companies shakes hands with Emani Rodriguez (left) of Venezuelan company Mundial Maquinas CA after signing the deal yesterday. Standing in the background from left are Venezuelan Ambassador Dario Morandy; Geoff DaSilva of Go-Invest (centre) and Saisnarine Kowlessar (partly hidden).
The first phase is the construction of a beverage plant and a biscuit plant. It was disclosed that deals to bottle four brands of juice, soft drink, water and beer have already been signed.
However these brands were not disclosed. Biscuits, crackers and cookies will also be produced at a Linden plant, Joshua Safeek of Safeco Group of Companies said.
The second phase is a rum line. According to Safeek, the company has agreed to be the agent for the manufacturing of Vybz Kartel rum, named for Jamaican DJ/rapper. The rum is to be manufactured and bottled at a bottling plant not too far away from the new Skeldon sugar factory, where raw material will be sourced.
Safeek said the project includes a three-year expansion plan, where the company will expand to Trinidad and Jamaica.
Venezuelan Ambassador Dario Morandy said that the Venezuelan government celebrates any investments that will lead to better relationships between the two countries. He said that the support of the Venezuelan embassy here can be counted on to ensure success.
Geoff DaSilva, Head of Go Invest said that the new deal is a good example for both local and foreign investors.
He said Guyana needs diversity in investment which is what the two companies have demonstrated with their investments.
At first glance -Things looking up!
Got an ominous feeling ’bout this one.
Guyana distilled and produced rum named after a Jamaican DJ/rapper? What IS this??
sales ? nothing else.
Sign, sign, and jobs, jobs and keep production going. So good for my Native Land.
Mundial Maquinas C.A a very successful company….
Why name a rum made in GUYANA after a JAMAICAN artist? Ridiculous, that’s why we Guyanese and Guyanese enterprises would NEVER be known.
Would a Jamaican company name something made in Jamaica after Eddy Grant? …and he’s well known there.
RIDICULOUS.
And for Venezuela, go on, invest in Guyana’s economy and when yuh can’t get 2/3 of our land, the Essequibo, pull out so you can cripple our economy.
I must say it is great to hear jobs are being created in a time when lots of Guyanese are searching, most times aimlessly. My issue is, don’t we have enough rum being produced in this country? Don’t we have enough social ills that are off-shoots from alcohol? I think more thought should have been put into the rum part of the deal. Berbice women and children, brace yourselves, the rougher ride is about to start,after all a rum factory is coming closer to you.
I was feeling optimistic about this piece of news until I saw that Mundial Maquinas C.A. was going to produce alcohol.
This company is plainly using the soft drinks and biscuits production bait as the TROJAN HORSE to capture the Guyanese alcohol drinkers because we know the BIG MONEY is not in the biscuits or soft drinks but in the far more expensive alcohol products.
Worse still, Guyana has its own indigenous alcohol producers and faced with this new competition, those companies may be eaten up by this conglomerate.
It is nevertheless good to see that unlike Surinam, Venezeula is trying to live well with its neighbours but Mundial Maquinas should stick to producing soft drinks and biscuits ONLY.
Please examine who the investors are: they recently admittted to smuggling beer into the country as soft drink. This is a known fact. This is who the PPP is welcoming as investors.
what the honourable president (Mr Barratt Jagdeo) ,is doing is great. I have read about the touting of private car drivers, and the government is doing something about it now, and the drop outs of school children,well that should have been looked into years ago , not only now.
As for the bottling company ,that will soon be in operations, that is in Linden and Skeldon, i applaud the good work of the government, for there will be about 250 jobs opening. Mr President with all due respect i am guyanese too, and i have been thinking why all these opportunities are opened up to Region 6 and georgetown areas, why not the countryside like Rosignol where alot of housewife and school drop outs need a job, but because they have little education,they can’t find a proper job, please if there could be a factory of this magnitude in Rosignol i know it will make the people very happy . Please consider the poor people in these areas. Thank you.
Another good piece of news on investments in Guyana, this time by a private company taking the initiative. Good stuff!! Govt should continue to create attractive investment climate…and keep the crime rate down.
Such inconsistencies in government policies. One day ago the talk was about alchol abuse, the next day we building plants to produce more rum…..guess is rum till the guyanese die.
THINK EXPORT.
You hit the nail right on the head Thomas.
just let me know how i can make some money on the deal to hell with the politics, look at it this way if we dont produce the dam rum someone else will do it so let ouer people do it. long live GUYANA.
As long as these businesses and investments, are done with transparency and accountably and within the rule of law, they should be encouraged.
Private investments and businesses, have been repressed and disincentivised, particularly, in the undemocratic era of the PNC’s anti imperialism/socialism.
It is entrepreneurism and private businesses, which have the potential and capacity in a democratic environment, to move the country foward economically and helpt to raise the standard of living in the society.
The administration has the responsibility to put in place the necessary legal, institutional and administrative framework, to help limit and eradicate substance abuse in the society.
As for competion; it is intrinsic to a democratic society and the development and growth of the private sector, essentially, it helps to calibrate both economic and political institutions, to make them function more accountably and efficiently.
tahs good but all of the Rum shoulb be exported and heavely tax
The rum is going to Venezuela and the rest of Latin and Central America.
Think!!! XM and DDL are reknown worldwide and are top shelf worldwide. This Venezuelan is smart, he’s investing in rum to have a cheaper brand of Guyana’s Gold for the Central and Latin American market. When the spanish man see MADE IN GUYANA they will buy it.
LONG LIVE PRODUCTION!!!!!