Small Business Profile
For John Caesar, the production of barley, corn and plantain flours back in the 1970’s, started as a means of satisfying his family’s breakfast needs. However, the home-made cereals manufactured from his produce quickly found a following beyond his family circle, growing into a cottage industry. Finally, Caesar ended his 22-year tenure in Linden’s bauxite mines and founded a small business,
Chanzar Enterprise at 106 Pine Street, Mackenzie.
Chanzar Enterprises is built around the production of spices – curry powder, annatto powder, ginger power, Chinese spice, turmeric dye, all-purpose seasoning and spice blends. The spices are blended specifically to enhance various well-known Guyanese dishes including pepperpot and metemgee and needless to say they are hugely popular in many a Linden kitchen. Caesar’s start in business is a familiar one to small entrepreneurs. He began with a small capital base, initially managing a “turnover” operation that yielded little surplus. Such marginal profits as he realized were ploughed back into purchasing equipment and into the gradual expansion of his operation. Eventually he sought financial support from the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED) to construct the Pine Street location which doubles as a sales outlet and a production centre. Caesar, along with two employees, handle production while his daughter, Joan Gentle, is the firm’s General Manager. Another daughter, Janice Alonzo is also active in the business.
During an interview with Stabroek Business Caesar related that while the venture has now blossomed into a thriving enterprise his products have maintained an essential home-made orientation. He says that the focus of what he does goes beyond simply “making money.” He wants to manufacture products that can be readily applied in home cooking.
Caesar says that he is concerned that Guyanese consume too many food additives that contain many chemicals. The ingredients of his spices, he says, “are all natural.”
Chanzar is the only enterprise of its kind in the mining town, a circumstance that allows it to enjoy widespread support and popularity among the residents. Caesar continues to rely on the reputation of his products as his principal marketing tool and his market has been consolidated mostly by word-of-mouth.
Chanzar sales representative Ann Walter says the company’s customers include returning Guyanese and overseas visitors some of whom make purchases in commercial quantities. Caesar says that spices bought for export are usually carefully packaged and labeled in order to ensure that they meet the high customer service standards of metropolitan countries.
Caesar is acutely aware of the fact that if his business is to grow even further he needs to expand his export market beyond visitor purchases. The modest local market is insufficient to sustain the enterprise. Apart from the small size of the Linden market, economic hardship has meant that business is not exactly booming. A strong overseas market would mean “the whole world” to him. “With no exports you are squeezing yourself into a hole,” Caesar says.
His current marketing focus, in the first instance, is on the Caribbean. Recently, he received a signal from The Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) of a possible market in Barbados for corn, cassava, rice and plantain flours. Caesar says that his enterprise can respond to that market opportunity. To this end he has already started to expand the company’s farming activities in order to position it to respond to the promised new market.
As Chanzar gears itself for the challenge of accessing the overseas market, the company is also seeking to improve the quality of its packaging.
Caesar is currently seeking a supplier for colour- coded plastics for the company’s various spices. Presently, the large packs of curry powder are placed in double, clear plastic bags to secure their labels resulting in the actual colour of the product being concealed beneath the layers of plastic.
In addition to packaging improvement, the company also has plans to begin printing labels directly onto packaging.
Caesar says that while business carries with it an expectation of profit local entrepreneurs should strive continually for market acceptance.
He says that while business is “hard work” he, nonetheless, thoroughly enjoys what he does.
