International Internships for Three Marketing Students

by Marie-Claire Williams

Three business students are gaining first-hand training in the operations of an international spirits company during a three-month internship with the West Indies

Rum Distillery (WIRD)/Maison

Ferrand at their offices in Europe and the United States.

The internships, which began in January, are an opportunity for the trio to broaden their knowledge in the areas of sales, marketing, brand building, and inventory management.

Jason Blunt, who is currently pursuing graduate studies in Financial and Business Economics, is based at the company’s London office. This internship appears to be a natural next step in his career path, having learnt the operations of his family’s rum shop in Kingsland, Christ Church as a youth.

“It’s just amazing how some things line up and work for you because I grew up in a Bajan rum shop. That is my family’s business. In my younger, years I observed the daily activities in the shop, and as time went on, I noticed the growth in the business. So regarding spirits, I saw the movement from just having a few of the main brands to having a whole host of liquor brands and other products that are

Erica Hinkson (centre) poses with Gene Charness (left), Founder/Owner of Warehouse Liquors in Chicago and Victor Bouvier, Maison Ferrand Midwest Regional Director.

Jason Blunt Kelsey Brereton

now competing for shelf space … That’s one of the major reasons why I decided to apply, and now I am fortunate enough to be [on the internship],” said Blunt, who is currently a teacher at The Ellerslie School.

Tourism and Sport Management student Kelsey Brereton believes the opportunity to learn from experts in the field while based in Dallas, Texas, will help her to better market events such as the popular Food and Rum Festival.

“In tourism, we are in the business of making people happy and finding new ways to do so. And Maison Ferrand and West Indies Rum Distillery are definitely all about that because they’re focused on creating new products and looking at how they can innovate their products to please the consumer.

“I think that this internship will be filled with a lot of learning opportunities, not only

from a professional aspect where I’ll gain skills in various areas like sales, marketing and brand management or inventory management, but I also think that I’ll learn from their culture, the passion they have for their products, and how they market them to the consumers. So that can transfer into me coming back here and contributing to the tourism product, how we market the different types of rum that we promote at the [Food and Rum] Festival here, and even when we go into international trade shows,” Brereton said. The third intern, Erica Hinkson, who is pursuing an MSc. in Marketing, is based in Chicago, Illinois for the duration of the programme. She thanked her lecturers at Cave Hill and at The UWI Open Campus and said she was thrilled to be selected. “I’m very excited to take on a new challenge, to learn under their managers [who are] some of the world’s best so that I could learn marketing from an international perspective. “I have travelled a lot throughout my life, but I’ve never lived for a period of time in another country and had to work and interact with persons in the Former Principal, Professor Emerita the Most Honourable Eudine field especially in Barriteau speaking with Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Maison Ferrand USA, Guillaume Lamy marketing, my own discipline, on an international level. So I will take the experience; I will learn from it, and it will help me flesh out my experience and increase my job prospects … I think it would put me in a better position careerwise, and advance my life for myself, my daughter and my partner,” she said.

Announcing the internships last July, then Principal of The UWI, Cave Hill Campus, Professor the Most Honourable Eudine Barriteau, said it was part of a wider programme of collaboration between the campus and the WIRD. She also appealed to other employers to partner with Cave Hill Campus to create more training opportunities for students.

Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Maison Ferrand USA, Guillaume Lamy, reflected on his own career, having been hired as a young marketing student at that company 22 years ago. He said he was happy to partner with The UWI, Cave Hill to help students achieve similar success.

“When I was parachuted to the US, the idea was that I would do more than represent fine spirits; I would represent a culture and the French traditions that these spirits were made from.

“… Following the same model that I used to build my own career, I am very proud to finally bring in young, talented business students into our organisation, not to represent rum, but to represent the Caribbean traditions that these rums were made from,” Lamy stated.

The students received a monthly stipend along with paid accommodation for the duration of their stay. l