Since 1988, Burt and Vilma Denny has been demonstrating the kind of determination and resilience required to survive and grow in a local manufacturing sector that throws up its own fair share of challenges. From beginings that could hardly have beren humbler, Tandy’s Manufacturing Enterprise has inched its way to the very top of the agro-processinbg industry in Guyana. Its trade mark peanut butter and the assortment of jams, jellies and food seasonings added subsequently to its line of products have become familiar to Guyanese consumers, through supermarkets and other outlets that display the Tandy’s brand on their shelves.
Last year, with growth in mind, Tandy’s rerlocated its operations from the Mcdoom premises where it started to the Eccles Industrial Estate. The new facility allows for significantly enhanc-ed efficiency.
Tandika Denny, the youngest of the three children who are all part of one of the many family businesses in Guyana sat down recently with Stabroek Business to talk about the journey which the enterprise has taken over the past twenty three years. It began, she says, as a “kitchen job,” an experiment in the manufacture of nut butter using peanuts acquired from the interior. She explains that the product was simply made and sold, distributed to community shops in buckets and retailed by distributors who, in the absence of the bottles and labels that are essential to contemporary marketing, simply dipped from the bucket, pasted the rewquired quantities on paper, folded the ‘packages’ and handed them to the customers..
Tandika explains that the earliest barometer used to measure the demand for her parents’ peanut butter was the number of empty buckets that were returned to them. As demand grew, the supply of peanuts became a challerge and expansion requirements necessitated the importation of peanuts.
The success of the initial peanut butter ‘experiment’ not only persuaded the Denys of the need to further refine the product but also led them in the direction of diversification. Today, jams and jellies processed from an assortment of local fruit including pineapple, cherry, guava, watermelon and passion fruit along with food seasonigs are among the eight products manufactured under the Tandy’s brand.
Agro processing ventures that rely for their continuity on, among other things, a stready flow of farm supplies requires methodical planning. Tandika explains that the sustained production of peanut butter has meant that the company has had to resort to importation. Securing regular supplies of local has meant that the company has had to establish and maintain contact with local farmers to ensure that both the supply and the quality of fruit satisfy what she says are the company’s ever rising standards.
Like so many other small agro-processing ventures in Guyana Tandy’s Enterprises have had to confront the challenges associated with both the demand for growth and the need to meet rising consumer expectations. The former pursuit has seen the company secure modest but significant distribution inroads for its products in the United States and Canada. Last year, Tandika says, the company also established distribution arrangements in Grenada and Antigua. Trinidad and Tobago is an immediate goal while Brazil is also being considered as a future target market. In order to familiarise themselves with the overseas market the Dennys have attended trade fairs in Canada, Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago.
The . later pursuit, that of meeting the high standards necessary to grow market share has seen trhe company make significant investments in labelling and packaging. The effort has paid off. In 2009 the company was one of twelve recognized by the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association for their contribution to the manufacturing sector in Guyana. The company was cited for its “growth in domestic Market share through innovative packaging and labelling”
This year, Tandy’s is one of five local enterprises that will be represented at the prestigious SIAL Canada 2011, an international Agricultural Trade Fair scheduled to get underway in Toronto next week. SIAL attrracts manufacturers of a broad range of products including alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, canned foods, foord ingredients and fresh fruit and vegatables, among others. Tandika expects to represent ther company in Canada and says that the exposure will create an enhanced sense of the standards which Tandy’s is required to meet if it is to be competitive on the international market. Determined to make an impression, the company has created new product labels and packaging specifically for the SIAL Canada outing.
