It occurred to Sursattie Paul to venture into a modest enterprise re-packaging spices and home-made sweetmeats while she was employed as a merchandiser with the Bounty Supermarket chain. From her particular vantage point she had watched ordinary women like herself, coming and going, mounting determined lobbies in the hope that their products would “make” the shelves of one of the capital’s high-profile supermarkets.
She had, she said, become fixated by a woman who appeared to be of decidedly modest means and whose products – fried channa and salted peanuts – had “made it” to Bounty’s shelves. It was then that the first thoughts of Fresh Packers, which she now runs from her First Avenue, Kaneville home began to enter her head.
The sight of products ranging from dried thyme to tamarind balls being brought in by modest agro-processors was something of a revelation. In her mind’s eye she had always imagined that “up market” food outlets confined their patronage to so-called “brand name” suppliers. If the people whom she had always considered to be the lesser vendors could meet the standard, so could she.
That was how it began though as the saying goes it was not all “as simple as that”. She had found that agro- processing had “graduated” from the basic approach of simply bathing green mangoes in pickle and offering them to schoolchildren from roadside trays. There were safety and health standards to be met and meeting those involved having your production area, all too often a designated space in your domestic kitchen, “certified” by the Government Analyst-Food and Drugs Department (GAFDD) as suitable for the “manufacture” of food products.
In a sense, Sursattie did not immediately “jump” into what is now a significant part of her livelihood. She was pushed. Eight months into her supermarket job she was retrenched. There was, however, a silver lining. She approached the management of Bounty and got their approval to supply snacks and spices. There was, of course, the condition that her products secure GAFDD certification.
Fresh Packers, the company she now owns and operates came into being on February 28, 2009. Her spices were acquired from various wholesalers. What she purchased was re-packaged into smaller plastic bags and her Fresh Packers labels, intended, she says, to communicate a particular message, was attached. At the beginning Fresh Packers offered three products, Raw Geera, Roasted Geera and Masala, choices determined by what she understood to be the popular demand for those food spices. Perhaps not surprisingly, Bounty was her first buyer. The order was modest…a dozen packets of each product. Within three days they were calling for more supplies, this time, two dozen packets of each product. Buoyed by the Bounty response Sursattie decided to add two further products to her range.
Adequate financing is invariably the main challenge that faces small agro processors and it has been the same with Sursattie. Engaging commercial banks with little or no collateral assurance is a ‘no no’ and there are few other formal lending sources available.
A loan of fifty thousand dollars afforded her a modest measure of elbow room for additional investment. She used the money to add three more spices – black pepper, cinnamon sticks and ground spice to her range, financed the acquisition of a Bar Code and purchased additional products for packaging. She credits her husband with providing “great support” by giving more attention to the needs of two young children who, in 2009, when the enterprise was in its fledgling stage, were just seven and eleven years old, respectively.
Tragedy, regrettably, was to follow the start of the venture. A matter of months later, before 2009 had come and gone, her husband died. That occurrence marked the start of one of the more demanding periods of her life. The financial demands associated with having to support two young children compelled her to the pursuit as a seamstress which she had set aside some time earlier at the request of her husband. However, with the support of her niece, Kelly, who assisted with both the packaging of the spices and the preparation of the fried channa which had become a part of the enterprise, she persisted with the venture on which she had set out a short while earlier.
Food packaging and re-packaging enterprises can be demanding pursuits. The task can be doubly onerous when it is undertaken outside the convenience of a custom-built factory. Whatever the makeshift environment – which frequently, is no more than the confines of a domestic kitchen – the operating environment must measure up to the sanitation and safety and health standards set by the GAFDD and the Bureau of Standards.
These operations become more complex depending on the range of products being “manufactured” and the available evidence suggests that Fresh Packers has thrived under difficult circumstances. The company packages more than fifty spices and snacks offering them to a range of outlets including schools, community shops, gas stations and supermarkets. Sursattie has added a convivial “work area” to her Kaneville home in order to meet the standards requirement.
The demands of the job are rendered even more onerous by the fact that supplies are prepared to order so as to ensure freshness. She “specialises” in some of the favorite ‘distractions’ of local schoolchildren including “chicken foot”, metai, salted channa, tamarind balls, fudge and sugar cake. Housewives pay a keen interest in Sursattie’s re-packaged black pepper, barley flour, ground spice, turmeric, sago, plantain flour, clove, nutmeg, geera, masala, split peas power, fruit mix, and achar. To demonstrate the consistency of her standards, Sursattie is required to submit new samples of her products to the GAFDD for testing.
Bounty apart, (her products can be found at the supermarket’s Water Street, Grove, Regent Street and Kitty outlets) the Fresh Packers brand is also on the shelves of the DSL and Budget Supermarkets and the Guyana Marketing Corporation’s (GMC’s) Guyana Shop at the corners of Robb and Alexander streets. Fresh Packers’ products have also attracted the patronage of government ministries as well as overseas-based Guyanese seeking to return home with bits of Guyana in their suitcases.
Fresh Packers continues to be represented at various public displays and exhibitions including those periodically staged by the GMC’s Guyana Shop. After each “outing” there is usually a spike in sales.
The value which Sursattie places on the support she continues to receive from the GMC goes beyond the product promotion provided by the Guyana Shop. She has benefitted from the Corporation’s instructive advice of product promotion, particularly from the valued marketing dimension associated with packaging and labelling. GMC, she says, has also been instructive in enhancing her understanding of strategies associated with managing and operating a small business. Over time, too, she has come to appreciate the value of good customer service. She has implemented a “product return policy” which allows the buyer to return goods in instances where seals are broken or where products’ shelf lives do not extend to the promised expiry date. Her rate of return of faulty products, she says, has been low over the years.
These days, she revels in the name “Spice Lady”. It is, she believes, a sobriquet that underlines the strides that her company has made.
Last year, Sursattie acquired a car to enhance the efficiency of her business pursuits. Still not a licensed vehicle driver, she has hired a driver. She is, however, engaged in driving lessons at this time. Her now grown up daughter, Renita is however, a licensed driver and “helps out” when she is available.
If she can provide no assurances that her children will persist in the undertaking that she has started, Sursattie insists on seeing what she has built as a family business and is ever mindful of the support she has received in the process from her children and her deceased husband.
