Manchester female business owners building brands on strong family legacy

MANDEVILLE, Manchester:

What started out as a love for food and experimenting with different fruit and food blends has now become a successful business for Kris-San Bailey, owner of Builders’ Power Punch.

Inspired by her grandmother’s prowess in the kitchen and a request to make something special, Bailey successfully built and established her brand three years ago.

“I had no idea of starting a business. It was something I did every day, just making juice and it wasn’t just with the energy punch, I started with fruits. But one day my grandmother who sells peanuts told me to make some juice for her and a guest we had over and that’s where it took off.”

Bailey said the guest, who was a construction worker, ordered three bottles, which he took to work out of the parish the next day, and from then she has not stopped receiving orders.

“At the time it was called Bailey’s Epic Punch … I kept getting orders from different construction sites, even with specialised orders for rum and or Guinness to be added to the blend.”

With two flavours: pumpkin mix and the peanut blend currently available, Bailey said the products are served with or without alcohol and may be found at several corner shops, bars among other food establishments in the central region.

“Everybody loves it from children to the elderly. You order and we deliver. Right now we deliver in Mandeville for free and Old Harbour and May Pen on special days of each week.”

The young business owner said the standardisation of the business was made possible through the Central Jamaica Social Development Initiative (CJSDI), which exposed her to grant funding and scaling opportunities.

“…Our products are almost in supermarkets. It’s going through the testing right now and I am just happy that we will soon have them available for everyone who is requesting them…”

Though starting a business was never on her agenda, Bailey said she was destined to be an entrepreneur because of her independence.

“I don’t like working for people. I like being independent and so I will be working hard to expand. I want to incorporate other juices, (and) other flavours and I am working on that … Right now the juices have no preservatives and so there is a shorter shelf life, if not kept at the right temperature, but we have our eyes set on exporting one day,” Bailey added.

With her sights similarly set on growing a business passed down to her husband from his parents, Giselle Grant, Manager of Fi Wi Honey, is hoping to be able to help satisfy the demand of the international market for pure honey.

“We have raw, unprocessed, natural honey … We have our apiaries in St Elizabeth and that is where we do the extraction, filtering and bottling of the honey… My husband’s parents were the ones that actually started the beekeeping and my husband caught on to it, loved it and decided to start a side business.”

Previously deliveries were done just around the town, but Grant said the business now fills deliveries island wide.

“We supply gyms in Mandeville, we do deliveries in Mandeville, Santa Cruz and we do delivers via Knutsford Express islandwide … What we would love to do is export. We would love to have it in a few local stores and supermarkets and we will be exploring the Amazon store front idea…” she ended.