Jackie O. Minott, the Managing Director of Jamaica Standard Products. - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
SIXTY THREE years ago Leslie Minott began Jamaica Standard Products Company Limited (JSP) as a company trading primarily in produce, an undertaking which reaped success up to his death in 1972. It was his son Jackie Minott who took his father's vision and churned it into a "full bodied, sweet sizzling" success.
The second leg of the Minott entrepreneurship journey began at the historic Baronhall Estate, the largest coffee farm in Jamaica.
Jackie Minott purchased the 300 acre property from the Carreras Group when it was nothing but a farm in ruins, with only 30 acres of standing coffee following the devastation of the property by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Minott tackled the re-planting and after only a few years the Jamaica Standard Products Company Limited quickly became the largest single grower of Arabica coffee and the largest processor of roasted and ground coffee in Jamaica.
Today, JSP operates a thriving farm and factory outlet for world famous brands of High Mountain and Baronhall Estate Coffees.
A new Jamaica Standard Products Coffee Factory was built in 1997 covering 8,000 sq. feet and is outfitted with the most advanced technology to ensure the consistent quality of its product. Factory processing is complete when the coffee is packaged for export with the use of the vacuum machine, which seals the coffee. This process enhances the shelf life of the product as the vacuum removes all carbon dioxide from the package and leaves it airtight.
TESTING FOR QUALITY
The rigorous and detailed processing is never complete without the "cup testing" practice, which is the ultimate verification of the company's
trademark of quality. All the estate's coffees are properly taste tested internally by professional "cup tasters" and also externally by the Coffee Industry Board which verifies the quality of the coffee by giving an inspection certificate. The Jamaica Bureau of Standards also ensures that processing activities and products adhere to prescribed regulations. The company also holds the distinction of being the only coffee manufacturing company in the island with a quality system registered to ISO 9002.
Jamaica Standard Products recently achieved another milestone in its operations having begun Blue Mountain coffee farming on seventy acres of land appropriately named, "Blue Baron Estate" in Spring Hill, Portland. The Jamaica Coffee Board uses the Baronhall operation as a model farm.
Having extended its production capacity, JSP now has a core workforce of one hundred twenty employees, and during the harvest period (six times from September to December) as many as four hundred reapers are hired, the majority of them female. For JSP this forms part of the company's overall objective of contributing both to the country's Gross Domestic Product, as well as contributing to the development of the agriculture workforce, which currently accounts for 19 percent of the total labour force in Jamaica.
Along with High Mountain and Baronhall Estates Coffees, JSP masterfully roasts and packages, the world premier Blue Mountain Coffee under the brand name Wallenford Blue. In addition the company produces Brewer's Choice Coffee, Baronhall Coffee Liqueur and Baronhall Farm Sauces and Spices. It exports coffee green beans to Japan, the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Spain, Italy and Australia, while its roasted product is exported to Japan, the UK, USA, Canada, Germany, the Cayman Islands, Turks & Caicos, St. Martin, Hong Kong and Norway and its liqueurs are sold in duty free stores across the country.
Jamaica Standard Products Company has positioned itself to meet the needs of its existing customers, while seeking new ways of attracting potential buyers of the JSP line of products. Its website www.baronhall.com is one of the most recent initiatives to market the company's products. The Company is mindful of the importance of always ensuring that its clientele is satisfied, and as such part of its delivery strategy include air-freighting finished products to its shipping facility in the USA, and then shipping to customers via UPS-ground service within 48 hours of receiving orders.
This approach has worked well for the company as it not only increases its profit margins but extends the visibility of the JSP line of products, a distinctive Jamaican brand, in millions of homes across the globe.
