A father funding a son’s business dream - The evolution of teamaker Shavuot International
Published:Tuesday | October 30, 2018 | 12:00 AM
The older son had big dreams but no money. The father had retired with a good pension and decades of experience in manufacturing.
The combination gave rise to Shavuot Farms, a name that would be unrecognisable to most Jamaicans, but a company already blazing a trail in manufacturing for export, after just five years in business.
The 120-acre farm run by father and CEO Richard Harris and his two sons, Joel and Jordan Harris, is now a fully integrated agricultural and agro-processing enterprise called Shavuot International Holdings Limited, the parent company for Shavuot Farms, in the business of producing teas and castor oil.
The Harrises started the company in 2013 and by 2014 they were into manufacturing.
"We started with the farm and that allowed us to set up the raw material base. We were totally immersed in that operation producing a range of crops, and we got a lot of help from the linkages that we made," the CEO said, referring to arrangements with contract farmers in areas such as Lionel Town, Linstead, Ewarton, Race Course, St Thomas, and parts of western Jamaica.
Shavuot Farms produces a range of exotic teas using the leaves and seeds of the moringa plant, turmeric, cerassee, cinnamon, ginger, and combinations of those products, as well as high-value Jamaican black castor oil. Its products are sold under the brand name Shavuot.
Harris says his son Joel, armed with a major in marketing and a minor in entrepreneurship, was determined to set up a business and make money - but he had no backers.
The senior Harris was headed to retirement after decades as an opera-tions expert, with a track record spanning some top Jamaican companies - ICD Group and WIHCON, Serge Island, P.A. Benjamin, and Butterkist. His last role leading to retirement was a 14-year stretch at Jamaica Broilers as senior manager of operations.
But once Joel broached the idea of setting up their own business, his "semi-retired" father offered immediate support.
"He'd asked me to think of an idea of how we can convert our raw produce from the farm into value-added products, and that's how Shavuot International was formed," Joel chimed in.
"I selected the products, developed the tea range and the packaging, worked on how the company would be organised, and worked on the markets. He brought in his skill with operations, blended with my skill as a marketer, and here we are right now - Shavuot International - a strong family company," he said.
Shavuot is the name of one of the three Jewish pilgrimage festivals, which for the company means 'harvesting goodness'.
As testament to its impact, Shavuot hosted a tour of its Spanish Town factory by officials of the Jamaica Manufacturers an Exporters' Association, the Government, and IMF Representative to Jamaica Constant Lonkeng Ngouana on Tuesday, but Harris was not prepared to disclose information on the company's financial performance.
He did say the company was holding its own, but that his own assessment of its real value was the business experience it afforded his sons - Joel, who has the role of marketing director, and younger sibling Jordan, who recently joined the team fresh out of college to head up local promotion and sales.
Shavuot set up its first factory, a 4,000-square-foot plant, at Paisley in Clarendon. On the instigation of Michael Barnett, the executive director of New Horizon Christian Outreach, Harris moved the company to Wynter's Pen in Spanish Town, where it has twice the operating space - 6,000 square feet for teas, and another 2,000 square feet for the production of castor oil.
Shavuot has the capacity to produce 6,000 cases, each containing 24 boxes of tea, on a monthly basis, but is currently running at about 60 per cent capacity, with staff numbering 25, that can go to 50 for rush orders, Joel said. Under the company's flexitime schedule, staff work a 40-hour week from Mondays to Thursdays. The factory is idle on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. However, during peak periods, the staff is rostered for work on Fridays.
Ninety per cent of the company's production is exported to 15 countries, CEO Harris said. The rest is distributed in Jamaica.
"There is a demand for it and we're now accepted into the mainstream. Hopefully, we should be getting into places like Publix shortly, but we're into five different chain stores in the United States alone," he said.
"We went after exports thinking that if you can successfully tackle the requirements of the export market, through labelling and packaging and so on, then the local market could only benefit from a First-World product," he said.
Distribution of Shavuot's teas inside Jamaica is channelled through grocery chains such as Progressive, Hi-Lo, MegaMart, Lee's and Loshusan. Come 2019, the company plans to ramp up its advertising to drive brand recognition.
Locally, the company first turned to Tara Couriers for logistical support, while attempting to handle its own distribution, but soon determined it was not the right model to pursue.
"That was rough and so in line with our recent push, we decided to use a local distributor, in Derrimon Trading, for the past three months. And so far, so good," Harris said. He also gives a nod to National Bakery, whose Bold Ones initiative that assists emerging businesses, for assisting with billboard promotions for Shavuot on its fleet of trucks.
Meanwhile, there is a further subplot to the story of Shavuot - the big effect the presence of the company has had on the once notoriously gritty community of Wynter's Pen. The warren of lanes that characterise the area was never a first choice for commuters traversing the northern outskirts of Spanish Town.
"This community was notorious for gunfights and crime, but since moving here, I am yet to hear a shot fired in all of two years," Harris said.
"We are amazed and feel immensely gratified at the impact that this facility has made on this community and the communities that supply us with raw material."