CARIBBEAN PASSION COULD soon become a household name in Barbados, like Betty Crocker.
In fact, demand for Caribbean Passion products is so great that managing director Patricia McClean is finding it somewhat difficult to keep up.
Caribbean Passion has been operating for the past four years. It is the manufacturer of a number of marinades and cooking sauces, including a turmeric sauce for the preparation of all kinds of meat and other dishes.
While the products can be found in every supermarket across the island, McClean said this year there has been a change in the supply and demand patterns.
“The change is not because of the economy in Barbados because my products are still selling well, but it is when I can supply – whenever I supply, they go quickly,” she said.
McClean has plans to meet the growing demand and expand beyond these shores but said “getting financing is a little difficult right now”.
“The only challenge right now is accessing finance to move to my next level. I am still at phase one which was supposed to be in my first year. Phase two is what I am targeting right now and that includes the wider market – such as the hotels, restaurants and other institutions,” she said.
“Financing for manufacturing is not that easy to obtain in Barbados and the Minister of Small Business [Denis Kellman] has been pushing a lot of it recently so we are all hoping that some doors will be opened for us soon,” added McClean.
She said there were a number of international “marketing people and agents” who have already expressed interest in her products and she was also seeking to penetrate the rest of the Caribbean.
“I have good faith that my business will take off within the next year. I have requests from [Britain], Canada, the United States and some of the islands in the region but right now I cannot fulfil those request,” she said.
“I have request from St Vincent, St Lucia and Grenada, and I am supposed to go on a mission to two other islands and I am sure I will get interest there,” she added.
The Caribbean Passion line of marinades and sauces was officially launched at the 2010 Barbados Manufacturers’ Exhibition (BMEX) and were sold out within the first two days despite the “large quantities” in stock, said McClean.
“We ended up having to take telephone numbers and names to supply them after BMEX. It was such a fantastic thing and everybody was amazed at the response our booth was getting at BMEX. That is where we got some of the agents interested in the products from overseas.
“Recently our products were presented in London and they were well received as well,” she said.
The 61-year-old told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that her aim was to add more products to the offering. She also disclosed that she would be working towards establishing her own manufacturing plant, “hopefully by next year”.
The products are currently manufactured by Windmill Industries Ltd And McClean works with one other person to do the marketing.
“Along with cooking sauces and marinades I [will] also be going into the line of jams and jellies and confectionaries – all fruit-based. Those will be made with local fruits,” she said.
“Caribbean Passion was the first to come up with marinades and cooking sauces of this type. The idea behind the products is to make it easy for anyone who wants to cook quickly, anyone who can’t really cook, and for students who really don’t have the time. It reduces the cost of cooking because if you want to cook a stew you have to buy a [number of ingredients] whereas these products have in everything you would want to make a stew,” explained McClean, and they “hold the formulas for about 12 other products not yet on the market”.
The businesswoman said she came from a family of manufacturers and she developed a passion for cooking at an early age.
“I am a Miller and I was one of the first people involved in the manufacturing of Windmill products in the actual production,” she remarked.
“I like to cook and experiment with dishes. I would say it was about five years ago I thought that if I came up with a product that [made cooking] easy, where you just toss in the meat and this product and you would have a quick meal. I thought of how I would do that and started breaking down what we normally use as flavours at home and the blends of herbs and spices that my grandparents from both sides used.
“I implemented them in my products and fine-tuned them to suit a wide variety of people. Everybody thought the products were fantastic and I went with that,” explained the Country Road, St Michael resident.
She said the cost of production was “not that high” at the moment and all reviews of the products were “very, very good”.
