Small Business Focus…GuyTIE opens up opportunity for local BBQ sauce
– SS Natural Fruit Flavour Barbeque Sauce offers 7 different flavours
– Entrepreneur Sandra Craig to attend St. Vincent Expo in November
– four more fruit flavoured sauce to be launched this month
DPI, Guyana, Saturday, October 6, 2018
The recently concluded Guyana Trade and Investment Expo (GuyTie) has been credited with creating opportunities for a number of local manufacturers on the international market.
Sandra Craig, of Sandra’s Snackette, is one such beneficiary. She along with others have been invited to explore markets in St. Vincent.
“Right now, myself and five others are preparing to go to an exhibition in St. Vincent. The government of St. Vincent invited us to go up there for the exhibition. I am just open to being successful up there,” Craig told the Department of Public Information (DPI).
According to Craig, her opportunity came with her having sparked interest in many international investors from Trinidad, Barbados, St. Vincent, United Kingdom, Haiti and Argentina, through the recent Guyana Trade and Investment Exhibition (GuyTIE), and GO-Invest’s recent participation in a trade fair in Chile, with her locally manufactured fruit flavoured barbeque sauce which she uses to make local cuisine more palatable.
Offering more than seven different natural fruit flavours in her ‘SS Natural Fruit Flavor Barbeque Sauce’, Craig said the idea of making her own sauce developed after starting a BBQ business in 2011.
“My son, Shemroy Barrington, who was once Guyana’s opening batsman was eager to do the BBQ chicken. So, I said okay; I started off using other people’s sauce and adding other stuff to it, making it unique. One day I decided to do my own stuff. I started off with pineapple which is a signature BBQ sauce. Then I got a vision of doing passion fruit. From then on, every day I would do a different sauce with only local ingredients,” Craig said.
She explained that since the introduction of her sauce, the local market has been flocking her business. “People are very excited because it is the first ever concept of fruit flavoured BBQ sauce that they have come across. People are excited to try it and I have a lot of customers that are willing to do business with me, both overseas and locally.”
She expressed elation at the growth of her business over the years. “I am feeling very proud. When you have a vision, you have to put it out there and that is what I did and it has been successful for me so far.”
The mother of five noted that she will launch an additional four lines of fruit flavoured BBQ sauce during this month. Currently, her products are sold locally, in the DSL store on Sheriff street and the new GMC store on Robb Street, in two sizes, 500 ml and gallon bottles at economical prices. Persons interested in buying the sauce can reach her on mobile number 695-7627 or through the business Facebook and Instagram pages: SS Natural Fruit Flavour BBQ Sauce.
Crystal Stoll
Image: Jameel Mohamed