One of Guyana’s most successful entrepreneurs in the manufacturing sector, Ronald Ramjattan has grown accustomed to the awards that have been showered on his company.
This year, apart from the three awards – small to medium business of the year, innovation and manufacturing excellence – which his company secured at the Caribbean Business Awards, Ramjattan was also personally honoured with the title of Caribbean Entrepreneur of the Year. The awards, according to the citation, were given for “the company’s determination to attain an international standards qualification that enables it to compete on an equal quality platform next to global competitors.”
Having set up Baron Foods Ltd in St Lucia in 1991, Ramjattan moved on to create a branch in Grenada and is currently in the process of making a US$6 million investment in an operation in Trinidad and Tobago.
Baron Foods produces more than 150 products ranging from pepper sauces and essences to sauces and seasonings and enjoys the distinction of ready access to markets across the region and North America. Ramjattan says that Baron Foods widespread market is a tribute to the product quality which the enterprise has sought to maintain over the years. In 2005, the company secured the ISO 22000:2005 standard and in 2011 the FSSC 22000:2010 standard,. It was the first organisation in the region to achieve these standards that places it alongside global food giants like Nestle and Heinz.
The company says the awards were an acknowledgement of its efforts “to maintain a human aspect in the field of manufacturing by keeping personal interaction with suppliers at the heart of its business relationships via its interactive supplier programme.”
When Stabroek Business spoke with the Guyanese-born entrepreneur recently he said that it was his wish to add to his investment in a modest distribution outlet for Baron Foods in Georgetown on a scale that would allow him to realise the level of “backward integration” that would facilitate the creation of relationships with local farming communities. He says that in both St Lucia and Grenada Baron Foods provides a ready market for a range of produce cultivated by scores of farmers.
Ramjattan says Baron Foods’ next regional port of call, Trinidad and Tobago, will be the production hub for a company initiative to expand distribution into the hemisphere. He says that the plant, which includes premises, equipment and labelling and bottling facilities should begin production during the first quarter of next year.
His investment interests in Guyana apart, Ramjattan says he is particularly interested in sharing his knowledge and experience in the food safety sector with local agro-processors, given his company’s knowledge of the extra-regional market and the increasingly challenging food safety legislation which is being enacted in North America and Europe.
