Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL), yesterday afternoon commissioned its new bottling plant at the company’s Diamond, East Bank Demerara location, as the company aims to expand its capacity to meet the specifications and the growing demand it has created for its products.
At a ceremony held at the company’s Diamond location yesterday to mark the opening of the new plant, DDL’s Chairman, Yesu Persaud said that the beverage company is working its way to creating a bigger impact on the international market, noting that at the moment it is ‘just the beginning, and there is still a long way to go’.
He said that with its 9000 shareholders, the company has been able to ‘move through the heavy rains’, noting that the company has confidence in the country’s economy. Persaud said that DDL has one of the largest industrial complexes in Guyana and noted that the company has a vision of where it is heading and how to get there.
As regards the new bottling plant which was commissioned yesterday, Persaud said that the company was very grateful for the funding it received from the European Union(EU), some US$2M in grant funds out of a total project cost of US$9M; DDL provided the remaining US$7M from its own resources as well as loan financing. The funds were provided through the EU’s Integrated Develop-ment Programme for the Caribbean Rum Sector which will come to an end soon. Persaud appealed to the head of the EU Delegation, Geert Heikens as well as President Bharrat Jagdeo, who were among those attending yesterday’s opening, to lobby the EU Commission to have the programme extended since he noted, the programme which commenced sometime in 2001, really got under way in 2004/05,and stating that he wanted to see it concluded.
As regards the company’s position to date, Persaud said that DDL has made significant strides over the years and stated that the company has been able to diversify its operations to include, the Demerara Shipping Com-pany, Distribution Services Limited, which he noted is a major profits center which distributes DDL and other products on authorization from overseas based companies, as well as the fruit juice range of products the company decided to produce in 2001.
While addressing those gathered earlier, Heikens briefly stated that the EU’s role in the programme was to assist the rum sector to have the sector remain liberal and competitive globally, noting that DDL and other Caribbean companies have benefitted significantly from the programme.
He also stated that he has seen how much pride the local populace has in DDL’s products, noting that while the company may be small on the international market, its El Dorado range of products has made an impact on the European market.
President Jagdeo, in his feature address, congratulated DDL on its new initiative noting that the plant will assist the company as it attempts to compete globally and he also encouraged businesses to address the challenges of a changing national and global environment. He said the East Bank of Demerara close by to the new bottling plant has been seeing some amount of development, listing the Diamond Housing Scheme, the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, as well as two banks which are slated for completion sometime next year.
According to the President, because of the lack of determination by some companies to compete globally, many are stuck in the ‘old mode’, and he urged such entities to diversify their operations to compete on the global market.
DDL’s new bottling plant has three Italian bottling lines of capabilities, 12,000,3000, and 2000 bottles per hour each which was supplied and installed by US based company Packaging industry Equipment Inc.
The plant was built on land DDL purchased from GuySuco in 2001, the site where the former Diamond sugar factory once stood. There are two buildings of total area of 128,000 sq ft, which house the bottling plant, offices and raw materials as well as finished goods warehouses.
