Linden Bakery provides more than bread
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─ seeks to empower and motivate youth
DPI, Guyana, Tuesday, February 5, 2019
Triple ‘L’ Bakery of Half Mile Linden is motivating and empowering young people of the mining town, by providing good jobs and valuable work experience.
The bakery has been around 19 years and currently has 15 employees from the community. Proprietor Rudolph Richards has gone beyond merely employing youths in Linden.
During a visit by Minister of Public Telecommunications, Catherine Hughes to the business establishment, Richards highlighted that as a product of the Guyana National Service, discipline is one of the things he ensures his employees adopt.
He pointed out that though there may be challenges that some of these individuals possess he manages to find a way to work around it and bring out the best in them.
“Back in the days young people would listen to big people but this time around it’s pretty difficult because of a lot of issues like young people growing up without a father, some without any parent at all, and it could be very, very difficult as an employer to be employing persons with these kinds of issues. So, we exercise maximum patience with them.”
Richards added that his business is quite balanced not only focusing on the day-to-day operations but equipping the staff through various means to be prepared to take on future endeavours.
“If it means that we have to go through a period of on-the-job-training, then we do that. We don’t just look at the fact that it is just a person trying to come in and get a job and teach them how to make butter flap, cheese roll whatever. We go further than that. Some of them might be dropouts, so we actually try to reintegrate them back so if they need to go to the next level from this bakery, they can go out there as a product ready for the current market.”
Richards also emphasised that his children hold key positions in the thriving company giving them the opportunity to lead operations while they gain experience.
Richards and his wife now merely oversee the day to day management of the operation.
While discipline is key within this establishment, maintaining standards is also the vanguard of the business. Richards sees his business as a contributor to society as the government goes through the process of bringing development.
“I really appreciate what the government is doing. I understand that Rome wasn’t built in a day and there is a process that we have to go through. For example, when I started mixing bread the process doesn’t stop, there is always another part of the process before it goes to the oven.”
Delicia Haynes.
Images: Marceano Narine.