The Managing Director of Top Brandz, one of the larger distributors of imported beverages and household items has told Stabroek Business that the company has no interest in distributing “questionable brands” or products that cannot withstand the scrutiny of whatever health and quality standards testing they are exposed to prior to distribution in Guyana.
Wayne James who last week publicly refuted claims that the energy drink Ragaman impacted negatively on the virility of men told Stabroek Business earlier this week that all of the products imported into Guyana by his company are subjected to stringent quality testing or else, have already passed the rigid United States Food and Drug Administration testing regime And earlier this week the Top Brandz Managing Director sent Stabroek Business a copy of the analytical results of a series of content analyses done on the energy drink by Silliker, an Atlanta-based independent food safety and quality testing company.
James disclosed that Ragaman, which is manufactured in Haiti by a United States company is the only product imported into Guyana by Top Brandz that is not manufactured directly in the USA. He said that the company had taken a deliberate decision to stay away from seeking distributorships from manufacturers in ‘certain regions” given the concerns that have been expressed about the quality of the products produced in those regions. He said that in the past Top Brandz had also declined to distribute “certain products” in view of standards concerns which the company had had.
James said that while the Ragaman claims had done no real damage to the reputation of either the distributorship or the energy drink he was happy that the issue has been dealt with publicly. He said that what had concerned him most was the fact that the Ragaman rumour “cut across” one of the guiding principles of the company, that is, a commitment to the health considerations of consumers.
“Successful distributorships need to respond to the growing health consciousness among consumers in the global market and here in Guyana. We are structured to take account of that reality,” James said.
Public concern over the quality of imported food and drugs into Guyana has long been a problem on account of the smuggling of consumer goods into Guyana and the weakness of the institutional arrangements for monitoring food and drug imports. Stabroek Business has also learnt that connections may exist between rogue importers and a wholesale company which operates out of Miami and which allegedly supplies beverages and other products with very limited shelf life.
According to James the level of smuggling of contraband goods into Guyana left the country vulnerable to both sub-standard goods and to goods with only small expiry date windows. He said that most of the distributors whose products are handled by Top Brandz are “large firms with considerable reputations to protect” and would be particularly mindful to ensure that the products that they distributed worldwide met the highest possible quality standards.