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Financial News

Feb 2012 Financial News

Grace brand big abroad

Feb 07, 2012

IT took some 30 years for GraceKennedy products to get on the shelves in some major chains in the United States and the United Kingdom, but now that they are there company officials said the brand is a huge success, not only among the diaspora but foreigners alike.

According to Group Chief Executive Officer Don Wehby, while the company found it extremely difficult in the initial stages, significant progress has been made in the last decade.

"What we have found is that the Hispanics in the US are very attracted to our products such as our sauces, juices and coconut water, so that is a market that we can say there is going to be good growth in the future," Wehby told reporters and editors at the Observer Monday Exchange held at the newspaper's head office in Kingston.

Wehby explained that informal surveys by the company have discovered that a lot of tourists to Jamaica often seek out the Grace brand in major chains in places like Florida.

He explained that the tourists, after experiencing Jamaica, want to find the products in Florida "and that is something we can really work on having the tourism industry being really an export sector where we can have our products aligned with our visitors here".

The head of the now 90-year-old conglomerate, which consists of food manufacturing and distribution and financial services, said GraceKennedy brands can be found in major US chains like Publix, Walmart and Target along the East Coast.

However, Wehby said the plan is to break through on the West Coast, particularly with Grace coconut water, in Los Angeles and the wider California.

As a result, Wehby explained that the next move will be to appoint a distributor to start moving GraceKennedy products on the West Coast.

"So we are not as strong on the West Coast, but on the East coast we are pretty strong," he said.

According to Wehby, the challenge in some instances is to get the products from the ethnic isle to the mainstream isle in some food chains. This, he said, has to be done with innovation, increasing awareness and, in some cases, reformulation of some of the products such as the sauces.

Wehby said GraceKennedy is also investing significantly in market research for the areas outside of Jamaica.

"Because we live here we understand the consumers, but when you leave your hometown you have to operate with a lot of scientific data," Wehby said.

Mike Ranglin, chief executive officer of GK Foods, said a lot of time has been spent building relationships with these overseas customers.

"In a lot of cases it is a relationship at the local level, and as we get more important we become bigger suppliers where we go into central warehousing and get distributed across the chain and I think that is how it will continue to grow," Ranglin explained.

He said further that relationships are formed both with customers and distributors who know the customers.

"In a lot of cases, with the huge retailer outlets you can't even get an appointment to see them, it has to be somebody who brokers that relationship for you to get in products," he said.

"However, those relationships have grown in places like the United Kingdom where Grace products are in major chains such as Tesco, Morrison's, and Sainsbury, and in France with a move afoot to get into large chains in Holland," said Ranglin.

He admitted that it was difficult to get into and stay in the chain stores as manufacturers are required to have almost 100 per cent reliability.

"So that is why we choose the products that we go in there with, to make sure we can supply them and that the cost is competitive, because you lose your place very easily," Ranglin said.


Source:
BY INGRID BROWN Observer senior reporter
browni@jamaicaobserver.com
Jamaica Observer
Tuesday February 7, 2012

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Grace-brand-big-abroad_10722359#ixzz1lj1GAS9s