Sunny flavours and cool offerings from Barbados

BICO I PROFILE

As one of the oldest ice cream companies in Barbados and possibly the Caribbean, BICO has continually licked the competition in terms of novel offerings and traditional flavours for the whole family. A renowned innovator in business, the company is advancing forth with new ’game-changing’ products, ambitions to export to the UK, and getting serious about its sustainability ambitions.

Operating the coolest business in the Caribbean for 120 years, the Barbados Ice Cream Company (BICO) is synonymous among residents and tourists, young and old, as the go-to provider for premium ice creams, novelty lollies and desserts.

Famous for its ice cream jingle and catchy motto ‘Happiness is Here’, BICO has resolutely stood the test of time, despite being buffeted by disasters and crises, whether natural or man-made.

Evolution has been a firm friend as BICO has diversified to supply a wide range of world-famous brands, including croissants, baguettes and bread, premium novelties and desserts. It also has one million cubic feet of commercial cold storage at its Bridgetown port base.

While Covid-19 continues to play out on the global stage, BICO has been resilient in its approach in maintaining its presence in the market and developing a series of innovations to tempt the masses.

A serious drive for sustainability

And while customers naturally delight in their offerings, BICO has also firmly placed sustainability at the heart of everything it does – from its electric vehicle fleet to the solar power that contributes 10% of the factory’s power.

BICO is undoubtedly at the forefront of the regional ice cream manufacturing sector in joining the groundswell of businesses backing the Barbadian government’s fight to turn back the tide of climate change.

“We need to focus attention on protecting our island and fully endorse aligning our sustainable development goals with our Prime Minister’s ambitious goals,” confirmed BICO CEO Glen Stuart. “Our drive and development in the photovoltaic and electric commercial fleet sectors will see significant acceleration.”

He added: “We also have a wide range of famous compostable food containers. This sums up how diversified we are. Sustainable packaging is a critical aspect of our medium-term strategy.”

BICO’s Quart and Pint Size Ice Cream leads the way in protecting the island, its marine life and landfill by being compostable.

“We have paid close attention to the global effort to clean up single-use plastics,” asserted Mr Stuart. “We are aligned in this drive and continue to push the boundaries in all areas of our business.”

When Barbados instituted laws on single-use plastic, BICO demonstrated leadership, investing significant time in consulting restaurants and food vendors on their options and strategies to transition to BICO’s range of compostable food containers.

“It was such a success that our distributed brands Vegware and Ecopak became household names for compostables,” he added. “BICO is setting the standard in the Caribbean for the use of compostable containers for ice cream, and in Barbados for the restaurant and food services sectors.”

To improve the company’s carbon footprint further, BICO has focused on using alternative technologies. Its fleet of electric cars, vans and forklifts are charged at a facility on-site in tandem with the photovoltaic system.

“We are also studying innovations in the market to acquire more vans for our fleet,” Mr Stuart confirmed.

Quality in every lick

Such is BICO’s passion for setting the green agenda: the company’s efforts are helping to take the sustainability message into every home, business and beach where its ice creams and other products are happily consumed.

“I would say most residents in Barbados – young or old, grandparent to a young child – know and love BICO’s ice creams and are familiar with the jingle when our ice cream vans are in their communities,” smiled Mr Stuart. “Indeed, Happiness is Here is easily defined by whatever flavoured ice cream or product they love.”

This affiliation with BICO is deeply entrenched in Barbadian society, given it is among the oldest ice cream manufacturers in

BICO I PROFILE

WILLIAMS SOLAR

Williams Solar is one of the largest and most experienced developers of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in Barbados, with installations in other Eastern Caribbean islands, having installed over 200 PV systems to date, with a total installed capacity of over 20 MWp.

Williams Solar was established over 14 years ago to lead the Williams Industries Group’s efforts in renewable energy and energy efficiency. The combination of solar photovoltaic systems installed on Williams Industries Inc businesses generates over 100% of the annual energy used by the Williams Industries Group of Companies. Williams Solar has progressed into providing Build Own Operate (BOO) and turnkey systems for commercial and residential customers that include EPC and O&M.

As an active member of the Barbados Renewable Energy Association (BREA), Williams Solar is fully committed to taking positive action to help the government achieve its stated goal of 100% renewable energy. Step by step, Williams Solar is powering Barbados towards a sustainable future. the Caribbean. The history of its evolution can be traced back to 1887, but it officially came to prominence in 1901 as an ice company located in Bridgetown, the capital.

By 1910, the company had added its commercial cold storage facility and continued to expand its product and service offering to include ice cream and other products.

In August 2009, BICO’s factory was devastated by fire, necessitating the company to outsource production to countries from Trinidad and Tobago to Canada. Suriname became the only and last producer before BICO rebuilt stronger and brought production back home, complemented by a state-of-the-art factory.

Today, BICO produces a million litres of ice cream annually and is sold through ice cream scoop shops, restaurants, hotels and from its fleet of ice cream vans.

Mr Stuart affirmed: “There are three factors that differentiate BICO from its competitors; the fact we are a legacy ice cream maker, we have superior product quality, and we employ highly skilled people. In essence: quality, quality, and more quality.”

Underlining the company’s approach to clients and suppliers, he added: “We value the building of great relationships with all our partners. Some of these relationships are older than 30 years. This is testimony to our focus on solving problems together, timely communication, frequent check-ins, mutual trust and overall responsiveness.”

BICO I PROFILE

Meeting challenges, promoting innovation

With competition as stiff as it ever has been in the ice cream market in the Caribbean, BICO remains firmly optimistic about strengthening its brand and reaching beyond boundaries.

Mr Stuart attested: “The pandemic has been at the forefront of our recovery from our 2020 performance. Other significant challenges are related to the effects of the pandemic: alternative sourcing of raw materials and their associated, significant price increases. With careful planning, we are navigating these well.”

He spoke warmly of the hard work and commitment of BICO’s +70-strong staff. “The resilience of our team through weather storms, volcanic ash fall, Covid-19 and deaths in their families has kept me going.

“They have then returned to the factory comforted by the fact that we bring happiness to our customers around the region in a time of uncertainty. This was very evident during lockdowns and curfews. Our success is the result of their dedication.”

The company has also adapted in many other ways. Their various teams operate to minimise cross flows external to their departments, while maintaining communication and interaction through the greater use of virtual tools.

“In addition, we have implemented measures to protect our customers who interact with our vans and within our shop,” Mr Stuart explained. “We can now sell ice cream to customers based on their requesting interest on the BICOGO online platform. Soon they will be able to pay using a touchless method using their phones and a virtual wallet.”

While looking to attain ISO certification, BICO has several innovations on the product front in the pipeline. One includes a soon-to-be launched nut-based chocolate bar, demonstrating the brand’s ability to listen to customers and provide what they need.

“We also have a range of two flavoured tubs of ice cream coming soon. These will serve as game-changers in the market as our customers can soon enjoy the best of two worlds,” he tantalisingly teased.

While exceptionally strong in the Caribbean region, BICO has firm ambitions to steadily grow and is discussing the potential to take their brand to the UK market.

“Our customers enjoy our products while on vacation and are naturally requesting this level of happiness at home in the UK,” remarked Mr Stuart. ”Our short to mid-term plan is to recover and rebuild the gains we lost due to Covid-19, and then chart the company on a trajectory of rapid growth over the next five years.”

He concluded: “As BICO’s ’Happiness is Here’ tagline demonstrates, we provide happiness today and for future generations by being a responsible, sustainable, happiness-centric manufacturer. We want to ensure our products are always the preferred choice.” n