BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – Days after the Office of the Prime Minister reported that St, Kitts and Nevis is the leading exporter of goods and services in the OECS and Barbaods to the United States market, a local manufacturer has announced the company has secured a contract to bottle Guzzler and a citrus punch for the American Beverage Corporation.
The contract is expected to increase exports of St. Kitts and Nevis products to the United States as the St. Kitts Bottling Company was not among the companies exporting to the American market in 2008 and for the first seven months of this year.
WINNFM News quotes the St. Kitts Bottling Company’s CEO, Mr. Ancel Ramesh Sookhai as saying that the agreement with the American Beverage Corporation is a three year contract.
“The first year we’re expected to do 600,000 cases…the second year 720,000 and the third year a million cases,” he told WINNFM.
The CEO said that the Bottling Company had been asked to bid of the ABC contract earlier in the year. It was awarded in June and came into effect in September.
“We’ve been creating a reputation for ourselves in the region as being the top in quality in the English-Caribbean from Coca-Cola Assessment, and we’ve been granted a HACCP certification. In fact we got this in April of 2008,” said Sookhai.
HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) is a systematic preventive approach to food safety and pharmaceutical safety that addresses physical, chemical, and biological hazards as a means of prevention rather than finished product inspection.
Mr. Sookhai said Friday (Oct. 10) that that the Bottling Company was granted the bid based not just on cost, but also on the reliability and quality of its products and the strength of its management team to produce and meet expectations.
WINNFM News states that in order to service the contract, the St. Kitts Bottling Company has increased its operations from two to three shifts during the working week. It has purchased additional equipment and hired 19 new persons.
“Before we got the contract we were way below capacity. In this type of business volume is the key. Volume determines what happens in terms of profitability and sustainability,” said Sookhai.
He said before it had been awarded the ABC contract, the Bottling Company was producing about 300,000 cases of product for the local and export market. Now that it has the new business, the company is producing twice as much for export.
According to WINNFM News, total production will now be some 900,000 cases in the first year. Sookhai said that meant that the cost per case was reduced, and therefore the contribution towards profit would also increase.
“What it means in the long term long term is that the company would then have the ability to expand and grow, and at the same time the Federation will benefit as well,” the CEO said.
The Company is bottling Guzzler and a citrus punch for ABC. Mr. Sookhai explained that the major ingredients like concentrate and gum were sent to St. Kitts where sugar and water was added according to ABC’s formula.
For the past six months, the St. Kitts Bottling Company’s Coke product has been ranked by Coca Cola as the thirteen best of the sixty-one plants in the Caribbean and South America, and as number one in the English-speaking Caribbean.
The SKBC has also in the past six months ranked between two and six in packaging in both the region and the English-speaking Caribbean.
