Donnella Dorway is one of a now fast-growing number of fledgling business owners who are beginning to see a possible entrepreneurial future in agro-processing, though, for the time being at least she must wade her way through the formidable competition and the various other hurdles that have to be crossed if her dream of making it to the top is to become a reality.
Operating under the brand name Double D, Donnella is now one of the latest in a long line of manufacturing hopefuls who hopes that her pepper sauce does sufficient in terms of meeting public approval to make it to the very top of the pile.
Prior to launching the Double D brand she had worked for the fast food company, CAMEX, at its Georgetown Church’s and Mario’s outlets for nine years, up to February 2018. During some of those years she was also charged with manufacturing pepper sauce for the Church’s coastal outlets. That, she believes, has afforded her a knowledge of customer taste that might well give her Double D enterprise a competitive edge. That, in a sense, has lessened her concern over the fact that she is building her entrepreneurial ambitions around the manufacture of a product already crowded with ‘takers,’ all of whom, like her, dream of lucrative markets.
For Donnella, these are early days yet. Her production facilities are still limited to the domestic kitchen in her South Ruimveldt home where her ‘work horse’ piece of equipment is a sturdy domestic blender. The 100-plus gallons of pepper sauce that she manufactures each month can be found on the shelves of a small number of supermarkets including the Guyana Marketing Corporation’s Guyana Shop and Bonny’s. Like most of the country’s other small agro processors she continues to knock on doors, hoping for acceptance that does not come easily.
As time goes by Donnella is becoming increasingly aware of the need to develop an enhanced operational efficiency and business acumen if she is to have any chance of making it to the top; so that her immediate preoccupations include securing a grant from the Small Business Bureau to purchase an industrial blender, broadening the base of her fresh pepper suppliers to help her benefit from better prices, further up-grading her packaging in order to enhance product competitiveness and broadening the base of her products’ acceptance on local supermarket shelves. The creation of a modest ‘factory’ for production, she says, will come later.
While she concedes that there is no ignoring the competition that derives from the popularity of pepper sauce as a local condiment, she believes that the product provides opportunity for creativity and variety that allows room on the market for a wide variety of brands, Her own ‘original’ brand will, she says, soon be accompanied by a new ‘mango and pineapple’ variety.
Donnella believes that the local agro-processing industry can and will do much better if more opportunities are created for overseas exposure. She believes that since the vast majority of pepper sauce manufacturers belong in the small and micro business categories, there is need for increased official support in business training, financing growth and expansion and facilitating participation in international food fairs.
Even this early, Donnella is ready to perform a ‘leap of faith.’ Much of her present focus is on attending this month’s Florida International Trade and Cultural Expo (FITCE), the largest international trade and cultural conference organised by the State of Florida where she hopes to make her first big external ‘pitch’ for the Double D brand.
