King Pepper modernises
Published:Sunday | November 10, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Tameka Gordon, Business Reporter
Local seasoning and condiments manufacturer, King Pepper Products Limited, has automated its production line through a J$15 million injection to capitalise on demand for its products manufactured under the Eaton's brand.
It was either modernise or get left behind, said King Pepper's managing director, Christine Wong.
"What we have done is to automate our filling and capping lines," said Wong, while noting that there are plans to automate product labelling.
The volume-metric filler sourced through California-based Simplex Filler Company, will ensure consistency of quantity per container and will initially be used with the Eaton line of jerk products.
"What we were doing before, was a lot of handling of the product because everything was manual. You would have a lady fill the jar and then, because you are just using your eye to assess (portions), oftentimes it had to go to another lady to be topped up; and then it had to be passed on to another lady to be wiped and then to another lady to be capped," said Wong.
"This is a much more preferred way of doing things."
She says the four nozzle filler, which the company started using just three weeks ago, was specially designed for the company's needs and has allowed for much-anticipated reduction of labour costs while improving output.
With the capacity to produce two million units annually, Wong says output has been improved by some 30 per cent.
"I'm not necessarily saying we will do more than that now, what will happen is that we will do it in a more efficient way," she told Sunday Business.
King Pepper is targeting deeper market penetration for Eaton and other products in Europe and the United States.
"We just sent our first container to Germany," Wong said.
Several products under the Eaton line were included in the inaugural shipment to Germany, the managing director said.
The 28-year-old company sees 80 per cent of its sales from export and
also manufactures "a large per cent" of jerk seasoning and other products under contract to clients located in Jamaica, the US and the UK," the company said.
It also exports to Japan and other markets.
"Eaton's is our own brand, but the majority of our business is private labelling. We manufacture for many other brands so when you go to the supermarket and you see jerk seasoning on the shelf, we may make three or four of them and more than three or four on the export market," Wong said.
The upgrade was funded through a loan from EXIM Bank under its SME Growth Initiative Credit Facility with additional financial backing from "our number one customer," Wong said.
She declined to explain the nature of the injection, but said it was not in the form of equity nor a loan.
The EXIM Bank provided J$11 million of financing, with the client's input forming "roughly a quarter" of the cost, the company said.
The equipment upgrade has allowed the company to reduce its labour cost and its workforce, which was cut from 50 to 44.
"It has also forced us to sit down and plan our needs from the ordering of raw materials to the staff complement to the production plan, everything has to be planned in advance," the managing director said, noting the company's evolution into a medium-sized business.
"This machine will hold us at least for the next 10 to 15 years for sure," she said.
King Pepper purchased its current location in Hague, near Falmouth, from the Factories Corporation of Jamaica several years ago and recently also leased an additional 10,000 square feet warehousing space on the property adjoining its head office.
With the improved capacity, Wong says King Pepper will add new warehouse space at its head office.
"This equipment and what it's doing for us has really highlighted other areas that need attention: one is the labelling and another warehousing because we now end up with all this product which needs to be stored somewhere," she said.
The company has attained the Bureau of Standards' Plant Mark Certification, and is pushing to attain HACCP certification by 2015, Wong said.
King Pepper currently produces a line of 18 products covering jerk seasoning, pepper sauces, barbeque sauces, jams, chutneys, jerk ketchup and soy sauce.