A saucy saga!
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BARON FOODS GRENADA LTD
ou have to admire a company that, in these difficult economic times, strives hard to stick to its promises: Buy everything that the Farmer has to sell, pay on time and never import. Baron Foods, employs a business philosophy to do what it takes, to ensure its supply chain of ingredients remain stable for its globally popular pepper sauces and 150 other products produced right here in Grenada. “We enter into contracts and agreements to purchase from farmers their entire supply,” says Chris Persaud Executive Director of Baron Foods Limited for the last four years. “We only import raw materials that cannot be found on the local market Items like Onions and Garlic (both come from China) extra regional commodities like bottles, caps, labels and packaging,” Persaud confirms. And the Company is pretty loyal when it comes to paying monies out to local farmers too. “Other buyers in the country may make the farmers wait for weeks before they pay them, but we pay our Farmers on the spot. And the farmer also knows that if he brings me a 100 pounds of peppers this week and next week and every week we will buy everything they bring, in our bid to secure our supply chain. Baron’s Foods is owned by Guyanese born chemist turned businessman Ronald Ramtarran who saw an opportunity back in the 90’s, for strict quality control and superior packaging in a crowded market of Caribbean pepper sauces and marinades. “He wanted superior packaging that lifts the branded products to an International level of quality,” Persaud says. Baron Foods Grenada Ltd is the first ‘satellite company’ opened outside of St Lucia where it has been headquartered since 1991. “We decided on Grenada because throughout the OECS, Grenada has given us the biggest support of our brand, so we decided, we would open satellite plants throughout the region. As a sign of our appreciation to the people of Grenada, we decided to open a manufacturing facility here.” Persaud describes the GIDC as a dynamic well oiled machine, that gave the Company tremendous support, during the early stages of establishing its base in Grenada. “Any recent accolades they have received, like placing 1st among the ACP countries, for their business facilitation services, is justifiably earned. They honestly do everything possible to assist the investor, and in our case, they went ‘above and beyond’ to meet our every need. They were very helpful in our start up phase and we were very www.businessgrenada.com grateful for their professional assistance.” Persaud confirms there were very good investment incentives to do business in Grenada and that other Caribbean nations would do well to follow Grenada’s lead. “If other countries within the OECS had as an efficient agency as the GIDC here in Grenada, then investment throughout the region would be much better than it currently is. The only reason we are not up and running in Trinidad is because their bureaucracy is interfering with their investment policy...I wish they had a GIDC over there, they do not have a true one stop shop like we have here,” the businessman explains. In 2012, the newest collection of products “The Baron’s Home Made Collection” was launched. It is described as “High End Products” using a large percentage of local raw materials,” and can be found not just in West Indian supermarkets, but in major UK supermarket chains like Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s and other large supermarket chains throughout the USA & Canada. “All nationalities are enjoying our products,
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