Sandra Craig has good reason to be pleased about her investment in travelling to the United States to participate in the October 9-10 Florida International Trade Conference and Expo (FITCE) in Fort Lauderdale. Her Barbecue Sauce trading under the SS brand name has caught the attention of a Canadian distributor and now she is keeping her fingers crossed that a supply contract may be in the offing.
During an interview with the Stabroek Business last week, Sandra disclosed that Can-Carib, a Canadian export consultancy and brand development company that specialises in launching small businesses into the international markets has approached her about the marketing of her product.
A frequent participant in local and regional product displays Sandra has told Stabroek Business that she is treating the approach by the Canadian company as a “window of opportunity” that fits in with her ambition of having her brand make its way on the international market.
Back in October Sandra displayed the full range of her products at the FITCE event. She told the Stabroek Business that in the immediate term Can-Carib had signalled its specific interest in marketing her barbecue sauce though she added that there was the possibility of the discourse moving in the direction of a possible deal that could embrace other products.
The likely breakthrough on the international market has been timely for the owner of the SS brand who is currently working towards the opening of a new manufacturing facility in December. She says that the new facility will allow her to improve the efficiency of her overall operations and better position her to meet the volumes that will be required for export once she is able to seal a deal with CAN-Carib. The new facility, she says, ushers in a “big step forward” for the SS brand since she will now be focussing on the acquisition of equipment and machinery that will remove the manual labour dimension from her operation.
With regard to the acquisition of machinery, Sandra told Stabroek Business that while she has been able to source a key piece of equipment in Canada, she is keeping an open mind on the possibility of working in collaboration with another local business on a locally-built key piece of equipment, a decision she says that is linked to cost considerations.
While the details of a likely marketing contract with CAN-Carib remain to be finalised, Sandra says that the discussions are likely to include an arrangement under which she may be required to visit Canada for interaction with officials of CAN-Carib. Some of the details of the likely contract were to have been discussed between SS’ legal representatives and CAN-Carib officials via a Skype engagement last week. Sandra says that she was treating this development as a possible important breakthrough, as much for the local agro-processing sector as for the SS brand.
The popularity of the SS Brand of barbecue sauce reposes in Sandra’s success in pressing local fruits, including mango, golden apple, tamarind, passion fruit and cherry, into service to offer familiar tastes to the sauces, barbecue, of course, being a popular food preparation method among West Indians.
