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Businessuite Weekly
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Contents Cover Story
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BUSINESSUITE EVENT CALENDAR
The Human Element; Why Seprod Chose To Heal As A Whole Instead Of ‘Chopping Off Its Infested Arm’ “Just the people of St Thomas, I mean, we’re the only operation of significance in that area. If we were to pull out I can’t even imagine what it would be like on the...
COMPANY REPORTS
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Don Wehby’s Grace Kennedy Uses Stock Split to Appeal to Young Investors Young potential investors will soon have a chance to invest with Grace Kennedy following the approval by company shareholders of a three-for-...
Editorial
Tourism
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Maximizing Your Return On Investment By Maximizing Employee Motivation
Jamaica may soon get a few pointers in how to maximize the economic impact of the recently passed Timeshare Vacations Act following a high ...
For many, the aim of business is to ensure that you maximize performance and get the ideal return on your investment. However, the problem many ...
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Vacation Timeshare Dominates Jamaica/Mexico High Level Meetings
TECHNOLOGY
Trade
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Nintendo Catches Them All With Pokemon Go Nintendo last week enjoyed its biggest weekly share price gain in more than 30 years following the launch of Pokemon ...
Businessuite Weekly
JEA Aiming To Double Jamaica’s Export Earnings By 2019 President of the Jamaica Exporters Association ( JEA) is encouraging players in the local export market to collaborate more and compete less ... Issue: 10
Contents Credits
Regional
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St Lucia’s Jade Mountain And Anse Chastanet Named In Travel + Leisure Top 25 Caribbean Resorts The St Lucia based Jade Mountain and its ecochic sister property Anse Chastanet have been included among the Top 25 Caribbean resorts ...
Content Director Kayla Wright
The Businessuite News Centre BNC
Publisher and Editor in Chief
Aldo Antonio aldo@blackslateholdings.com
Subscription and Distribution Advertising Sales
Starbuck’s Move To Trinidad and Tobago Already Grinding Gears
businessuitemagazine@gmail.com
Graphic Design and Layout:
With the opening of Trinidad and Tobago’s first Starbuck’s coffeehouse just around the corner, the international coffeehouse is already in the...
Bonito Thompson
Photo credits
Sourced from the internet and contributed
Social Media
CLICK Digital Agency
Businessuite News Weekly Digital
Published Every 2nd, 3rd and 4th Monday Morning More in-depth coverage and reporting of Business News and Features; practical, how to, hands on business information; content focused on Caribbean business leaders aggressively seeking out opportunities for growth and expansion. Today, SME business owners and Entrepreneurs are more interested in how to do something and Businessuite News Weekly is delivering content to hundreds of thousands of Caribbean SME decision makers to help them make better strategic decisions about purchasing products and services for their businesses.
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Businessuite News Centre BNC A division of the Blackslate Media Group “Silicon Mountain” Mandeville Jamaica For all information 876-630-2216 (Kingston Office) 876- 342-9332 (Mobile) 876-630-2216 (Mandeville Office) 876-542-3719 (Mobile) aldo@blackslateholdings.com OR email blackslateholdings@gmail.com
Corporate Information:
Blackslate Media Group Ltd, “Silicon Mountain” Mandeville Jamaica 876-631-5418 (Kingston Office) 876-458-3253 (Mobile) 876-631-4505 (Mandeville Office) 876-280-9192 (Mobile) To learn more about Blackslate go to www.blackslateholdings.com aldo@blackslateholdings.com
ISBN Number
ISSN 0799-4427
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Businessuite Event Calendar 5
Monday, July 18
thursday, July 21
ICET 60th World Assembly Venue: Jamaica Pegasus Hotel
JBDC Mobile Business Clinic - Strengthening the Capacity of Jamaican MSMEs Venue: Emancipation Park
Tuesday, Julu 19 JEF ‘Social Etiquette, Personal & Professional Development’ Workshop Venue: JEF Training Center CARI-CODE - Sense-making in Organizations Venue: MIND
Annual General Meeting - Royal Jamaica Yacht Club Venue: Clubhouse Palisadoes Park
Friday, JULY 22 JEF ‘Leadership Skills & Strategies for Female Entrepreneurs’ Workshop Venue: JEF Training Center
Wednesday, July 20 JEF ‘Social Etiquette, Personal & Professional Development’ Workshop Venue: JEF Training Center
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Editorial By Kayla Wright
Maximizing Your Return On Investment By Maximizing Employee Motivation
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or many, the aim of business is to ensure that you maximize performance and get the ideal return on your investment. However, the problem many business owners face is that they sometimes forget that the best way to maximize ROI is to ensure that employee morale remains high. How often do you find yourself entering a business and are turned off from conducting any transaction simply because the staff was unwelcoming and in some cases, extremely rude? For many employers the process of hiring, training, and keeping employees is viewed as expenditure and employees end up becoming numbers. And because they become numbers, they sometimes get lost in the system and lose their motivation. According to research from Washington State University, there are four factors that drive employee motivation; the desires to acquire, bond, defend and understand.
Desire to acquire According to WSU, “all human beings want to acquire things”. The research finds that a key way several companies achieve high levels of motivation is through offers of incentives. It makes the suggestion that implementing an awards/ recognition programme will boost employee morale.
Desire to bond WSU finds that the best way employers can satisfy this is to focus on creating the right corporate culture. Corporate culture is a key part of business management and operations. The suggestion is made that employers should look to promote teamwork, collaboration, friendships, and transparency.
Desire to defend WSU indicates that this ‘desire to defend’ is related to the desire to bond. “When you feel like part of an organization, whether it’s a family, a department, or a business as a whole, you naturally want to protect it when it comes under attack”.
Desire to understand “Humans are also driven by a desire to understand the world around them. That is why transparent communication is such an effective means of keeping employees motivated during times of workplace restructure and upheaval”. The study by WSU finds that while employees appreciate being given answers, they’re also motivated to find solutions for themselves. As a business owner, it’s simple. If you want to maximize your ROI, then you need to maximize the morale of the people in your organization.
...there are four factors that drive employee motivation; the desires to acquire, bond, defend and understand. Issue: 10
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TECHNOLOGY Nintendo Catches Them All With Pokemon Go Nintendo last week enjoyed its biggest weekly share price gain in more than 30 years following the launch of Pokemon Go. The mobile phone app which was launched on July 6 has been getting a steady stream of nearly twenty-one million daily users; surpassing the previous record of twenty million daily users held by Candy Crush Saga in 2013. Last week, Nintendo’s stocks jumped by 70%, boosting its market value from £13bn to £19.6bn. Shares surpassed a near-35% rise in August 1989 when the Japanese company launched Dragon Quest, a fantasy role-playing game, in the US.
Pokemon Go Jamaica The hugely popular o game has taken off in Jamaica with many users reveling in the realistic nature of the game. Several local companies, including Jamexican restaurant, Chilitos have taken advantage of the game using ‘lures’ to increase customer traffic. The game uses a smartphone’s GPS location and real-world maps to track players as they move around. Players can visit Pokestops - typically landmarks or buildings - and collect free items in the game. The main aim is to catch Pokemon, which pop up along the way. The game provides an augmented reality experience, using the smartphone’s camera to provide a live view of the world, with Pokemon superimposed.
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COMPANY REPORTS Don Wehby’s Grace Kennedy Uses Stock Split to Appeal to Young Investors
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oung potential investors will soon have a chance to invest with Grace Kennedy following the approval by company shareholders of a three-for-one stock split.
Unanimous vote At an Extraordinary General Meeting last week Monday, shareholders voted unanimously in favour of the split. In order to facilitate the stock split, the shareholders also voted in favour of resolutions for amendment of the Company’s Articles of Incorporation to allow for an increase in the maximum number of shares that the Company is authorised to issue from Four Hundred Million to One point Two Billion and for the conversion of the shares in the Company which are not yet issued into stock when issued and fully paid. Speaking at the EGM, GraceKennedy Group CEO, Don Wehby explained that the approval by the shareholders of the subdivision of the shares would allow for the stock to be more accessible to investors and would lead to an increased liquidity in the trading of the stock.
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He also indicated that it would also allow for a widening of the Company’s ownership base as more persons would be able to invest in the Company’s stock along with an anticpated increase in activity in the trading of the stock which should allow the stock price to move towards its true value. At the close of 2015, Grace Kennedy’s stock traded at J$81.25 and on Friday July 8 the stock traded at $119.70. As at December 31, 2015, GK’s market capitalisation was J$26.9 billion meanwhile, as of Friday July 8, the Company’s market capitalisation stood at J$39.7 billion or US$315 million, an increase of approximately US$100 million. The stock split would result in the number of stock units currently owned by a stockholder being increased three-fold. The price of the stock would be split initially also by three. Explaining the split, Wehby explained that a stockholder with 100 stock units with a market price of J$120.00 per stock unit prior to the split will, immediately following the split, have 300 units with an initial price of J$40.00 per stock unit. Having been approved, the stock split will take effect on August 11, 2016.
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Cover Story
The Human Element; J “
ust the people of St Thomas, I mean, we’re the only operation of significance in that area. If we were to pull out I can’t even imagine what it would be like on the eastern end of the island. It was a tough decision to stay but at the end of the day, it just came down to the people part of it”. That’s what CEO of Seprod, Ricahrd Pandohie had to say about the decision to keep Golden grove Sugar Co. Ltd open despite the massive loss experienced over the last few years, when Businessuite Magazine spoke to him at the end of the group’s Annual General Meeting last week. Addressing the room full of shareholders, Pandohie had indicated that the El Nino induced drought of 2014/2015 devastated the quantity and quality of the sugar crop for 2016. “We will end the year with a production of only 11,000MT of sugar; well below the 16,000-18,000MT required for the operations to make financial sense” he said. Nevertheless Pandohie said the group would continue to aggressively explore opportunities, “such as liquid sugar and refined sugar production that will be financially positive, not only for GG but for the entire Jamaican sugar industry”.
Golden Grove Loss In 2015, the Group ended the year with a profit before tax of $604 million and a net profit attributable to shareholders of $577 million. Seprod also recorded an operating profit of $901M, a decline of 38% over 2014 when it recorded operating profit of J$1.46B. Addressing the AGM, company Chairman, Paul B Scott indicated that this was primarily driven by “significant restructuring costs related to the sugar operations at Golden Grove, the write off of obsolete inventory and the disruption of the Serge Island Dairy operation to install a new packaging line”. The results were also negatively impacted by one of the worst droughts in Jamaica’s history, which drove up the operational cost and reduced production of the agri-businesses. Likening the Golden Grove situation to an infected arm which posed a major risk to the body, Scott said the company was left with two choices; the easy choice of chopping off the arm or the much harder choice of trying to find the emergency drugs needed to heal the arm. He said in the end, the decision was to determine what the management can do to heal while keeping the whole body intact. Meanwhile, Pandohie says with the industry no longer enjoying artificially high prices to Europe that masked the underlying structural deficiencies; the fallout has been severe. “The impact 8
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Why Seprod Chose To Heal As A Whole Instead Of ‘Chopping Off Its Infested Arm’ of the drought was catastrophic and recovery will not be seen until 2017”, he stated. For this year Pandohie says ‘it is going to be a disaster’. Speaking to Businessuite Magazine following the AGM, he said projections for this year remain low. “Its going to be a disaster. But we always knew that though, the drought from last year meant that we couldn’t replant properly and so the production for this year was really bad. We only had 11,000MT of sugar and we needed at least 16,000MT”. However Pandohie says with the drought having been broken this year, he expects to see significant growth in the sugar industry. “The drought broke this year and we’ve replanted well so I expect next year we get the production up. The way the agriculture industry is set up, you have an impact this year; it takes almost two years to recover”. He says the focus for this year was mainly on positioning Golden Grove “to make sure we come out of the bottomless pit. Right now we’re in a situation where we can see some glimmer of light going forward. So right now we’re just doing all we can to prepare for next year”.
A Sweet Deal Despite the challenges Golden Grove faced however, Pandohie says the approval given by the government and relevant stakeholders given to GGSC as a Marketing Agency (MA) are integral in ensuring Seprod will have an opportunity to “be in charge of our own destiny”. “Our team will focus on improving the factory operations, exploring value-added opportunities, building the GG brand and distributing it throughout CARICOM and beyond. The retail packaging of our brand is the 1st step in value-added and it is now available in Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Barbados & Trinidad” he indicated. In March, Golden Grove shipped its first shipment as a marketing agent after investing $3 billion over the past five years in the factory and farm operations of GGS, and making big losses on the investment. At the time, Pandohie said that shipment of sugar would be the first of many as Golden Grove will be honouring several firm commitments made especially to CARICOM markets. “As promised, we are going aggressively after those markets that are available to us. We feel it is important that we match a highquality product with high returns to justify our investment and faith in the sugar industry,” he said.
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other subsidiaries as the company attempted to maximize its growth potential.
Seprod Group On a wider scale, Pandohie says the other subsidiaries of the Seprod group performed exceptionally for the financial year under review. For Serge Island, the CEO said while the farm operation was assaulted by the drought, J$200 million has been invested to put in new wells and irrigation systems at the farms. “Our target is to move from the 2015 figure of 8 litres of milk per cow per day to 15 litres of milk per cow per day by the second quarter of 2017; currently we are tracking well and as of June, we are at 11 litres of milk per cow per day”. Meanwhile, he says a new line valued at US$3.5M was installed in the factory for the financial year with continued investments being made, with the aim of driving production and innovation capabilities. Pandohie says in line with promises made by Serge Island, Serge evaporated milk and whipping cream have been in the market since January and as of a week ago, the “World of Serge” welcomed Serge condensed milk. He says next in line is the Serge lactose-free milk which will be available next week. The group CEO says several investments were also made in
Pandohie says for International Biscuits Limited (IBL), over US$2.5M was invested in retooling the processing side of the biscuit factory. However he says following the April closure of the factory, it has reopened with a 40% improvement in productivity giving Seprod a “solid base to continue the production of our own world class Butterkist & Snackable brands; the globally recognized Ovaltine biscuit for Twinnings and the amazingly addictive Ms. Birdies for Purity”.
The Way Forward Pandohie says going forward, Golden Grove and by extension the Seprod Group will focus on five pillars for growth. He says these include innovation, rennonvations, building on economies of scale, a high performance culture and mutually beneficial partnerships. Whilst this operation continues to be a challenge, with several key variables beyond our control; Management is convinced that we have the marketing and sales capability to sell our own sugar at a price better than any other entity in the Caribbean. Furthermore, we believe that there are more value-added opportunities that can benefit the entire industry.
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going forward, Golden Grove and by extension the Seprod Group will focus on five pillars for growth. He says these include innovation, rennonvations, building on economies of scale, a high performance culture and mutually beneficial partnerships. Richard Pandohie Seprod CEO addressing the company AGM on July 11
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Tourism Vacation Timeshare Dominates Jamaica/Mexico High Level Meetings agreement each owner is allowed to use the property for a fixed period of time in any given year. Developers are now also able to build properties for use as Timeshare accommodation. The minister says the introduction of timeshare vacations is another way to diversify Jamaica’s product mix since Jamaica’s Timeshare Vacations Act provided unique opportunities for developers and buyers alike.
Jamaica may soon get a few pointers in how to maximize the economic impact of the recently passed Timeshare Vacations Act following a high level meeting between the minister of Tourism and his Mexican counterparts. Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett had left the island last week to meet with key Timeshare stakeholders in one of the leading participants in timeshare schemes, Los Cabos, Mexico. Timeshare allows persons to jointly own a vacation property such as a villa or resort condominium. Under this type of
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The talks which took place between Bartlett and Secretary of Tourism of the Mexican state of Baha California Sur, where Los Cabos is located, Genaro Ruiz Hernández focused on investment strategies primarily in the booming global Timeshare sector, multidestinational tourism and airlift arrangements. “Los Cabos is a global industry leader in timeshare and we are here to see what they did to become so successful while at the same time encouraging players in the field to invest in this now nascent industry for us”, minister Bartlett explained, “people are excited about what Jamaica is doing and are confident that the industry can take off very quickly”.
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Trade JEA Aiming To Double Jamaica’s Export Earnings By 2019
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resident of the Jamaica Exporters Association ( JEA) is encouraging players in the local export market to collaborate more and compete less if they intend to double the country’s export earnings by 2019. Currently Jamaica earns US$1.2 billion from exports annually. Speaking at the Agency’s Global Talk Speaker series, on Friday, Michelle Chong said achieving profits of US$2.5 billion in the next three years is achievable, “as long as the big companies contribute by mentoring smaller companies and small companies open up to linkages, cooperation and help each other”. She says taking advantage of the 3.5 to 5 million Jamaicans in the Diaspora and an additional 7.4 billion people globally to export their products to, local exporters need to “let the world know, that we are committed to the development of this country. Our message right now is simply that Jamaica is open for export business”. Chung says companies need to keep talking about exports and look for the opportunities everywhere.
Regional St Lucia’s Jade Mountain And Anse Chastanet Named In Travel + Leisure Top 25 Caribbean Resorts
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he St Lucia based Jade Mountain and its eco-chic sister property Anse Chastanet have been included among the Top 25 Caribbean resorts by one of the world’s leading travel magazines. Travel + Leisure’s (T+L) World’s Best Awards reader survey results, which reveal the hotels that deliver the most extraordinary experiences, list Jade Mountain in third position in the Caribbean while Anse Chastanet, came in at number 13 in the rankings.
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According to Executive Director of Marketing and Operations at both properties, Karolin Troubetzkoy the recognition is a particularly gratifying achievement as the judging becomes more competitive each year. “On an experiential level, everyone is reaching above and beyond to impress and serve guests,” she said. Kamalame Cay in The Bahamas and Curtain Bluff in Antigua captured the top two Caribbean positions, respectively. For T+L’s annual poll, the magazine asked respondents to vote for the hotels, destinations and other travel companies that define the very best in travel.
Anse Chastanet And Jade Mountain In St Lucia
The survey results represent one of the most widely recognized and respected rankings in the travel and tourism industry worldwide.
Starbuck’s Move To Trinidad and Tobago Already Grinding Gears
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ith the opening of Trinidad and Tobago’s first Starbuck’s coffeehouse just around the corner, the international coffeehouse is already in the news for causing a stir. According to reports, the coffeehouse which is set to open later this year, will be located at MovieTowne cineplex and shopping centre Last week, electronics retailer, Detour-tech posted a banner on its window storefront (seen above), advertising what it described as a “wrongful eviction sale” with “up to 75 per cent off everything” at its MovieTowne outlet. BARADA Information Systems Ltd, which operates DETOUR-tech electronics stores says it is “being forced” to move from its location on the MovieTowne cineplex and shopping centre. BARADA says it is shocked and disappointed with the decision of MovieTowne to terminate Detour-tech’s tenancy from its prime location The Starbucks store will be exclusively owned and operated by restaurant management company, Prestige Holdings Limited (PHL) through a new licensing agreement with Starbucks Coffee Company. Prestige will be responsible for delivering Starbucks iconic coffeehouse experience to customers and overseeing the brand’s growth in the market. For Starbucks Coffee Company, T&T will represent the company’s 16th market in the Latin America and Caribbean region.
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