At just 25, entrepreneur Vaon-Marc Hestick provides employment for several women through his Alpha Products brand

By Lakhram Bhagirat

Challenges are part of everyone’s life and how one deals with these challenges determine how one would cope with whatever life throws at them. Challenges play an integral part in shaping us and our outlook on the future.
Ever since he was a child, Vaon-Marc Hestick’s life has been filled with challenges. He remembers while just starting school, his teachers telling his parents that he would not be able to learn and that they should take him home and “try with him”. It somewhat broke his spirits, but his father did not take that as an excuse for keeping him away.

His father sent him to the same school and there he got his foundation in education, as although the teachers would pay him no mind and seated him at the back of the class and had him basically fending for himself in spite of being paid a fee to teach him since it was a private school.
He remained steadfast in bettering himself and would fight through and ended up graduating all levels of his schooling. Today, that boy is an entrepreneur on the path of building a successful business.
At just 25 years old, Hestick is co-owner of Alpha Products along with his mother.
The journey to building a successful business has not been an easy one. Rather it was a road paved with harsh lessons, failures and losses. But what kept him going was the fact that he was on the path to becoming independent – and independence he craved.

Alpha Products is the producer of a variety of locally-made snacks – cassava, plantain and sweet potato chips; tamarind balls; mettai; salsa; green seasonings and pepper sauce.
The Guyana School of Agriculture (GAS) graduate said he fell in love with agro-processing and when he finished studies back in 2014, he knew he wanted to get into the field.
“When I came out of GSA, I was taunting with the idea (of getting into agro-processing). I did not want to work with anyone. I did not want to work a standard 9-5 or 8-4 job and I was speaking to my mother and she said okay let’s start a business. So, one year after graduating, we started Alpha Products,” he revealed.
So, in November of 2015, Alpha Products was birthed. Hestick’s mother, Marva, at the beginning had the dream of providing employment for unemployed women by having them distribute the company’s snacks, but that fell through while she was at the helm. Then about three years ago, Hestick fully took over the operations of the company and began growing the brand. While his mother is still a part of the operations, the young man controls almost every aspect of Alpha Products.
Along the way, he learnt a lot of hard lessons from product quality to suffering losses to lack of access to financing.

“So, for the past three years I have been running with it (the business operations) and since I took over, we have been running with two new products – the mixed chips and tamarind ginger and so far, those products have been a hit on the market. We are in about seven supermarkets and we also have smaller stores.
“I am responsible for the chips…so most of our products are sourced. Our plantain chips and salsa are made by us. We have a contract farmer that provides us with 100-150 pounds of plantain every week depending on the order and we also have retired women who are working on subcontracts to supply other chips like cassava and sweet potato…we currently have five women working with us that would supply snacks,” Hestick explained.
The pepper sauces are made by his mother, since she is the one who developed the recipe.
Hestick is also responsible for the production of the green seasonings, and he explains that their green seasonings and pepper sauces are all organic, since the family farms their own peppers and herbs. He added that in order to reduce costs and produce a more controlled product, he also produces his own vinegar for the pepper sauces so they would only have to buy garlic and salt to prepare the seasonings.

“To secure product control and quality, I spent time developing and perfecting my recipes and then I taught them to the women who we subcontract to and that way we create employment and also maintain the quality. We are not about sourcing cheap because sometimes sourcing cheap doesn’t mean sourcing quality. Yes, you will get quantity, but [not necessarily] quality. I have learnt over the years that a quality brand is important,” the young entrepreneur said.
Alpha Products offers all of its products in varying sizes and has special deals for everyone.
Hestick has a lot of plans for expansion and has been in conversation with a lot of entities about getting his products into the regional and international markets, but there are certain requirements he would have to meet. That brings him to the challenges of being a small business owner in Guyana.
He explains that it is hard to access financing on the local market and accessing packaging upgrades is also expensive.
“It is hard to get a loan from the bank when you are a small business so you would go to the Small Business Bureau and get a grant, but you have to show them that you have been in operation for so much years and that your business is registered and you are legal and do GRA and so. Most people don’t do GRA because of the stress. You make $200,000 and at the end of the day, GRA want $24,000 of it, so sometimes it isn’t profitable to go through taxwise.
“I have conversations with Massy Trinidad, but they say our packaging needs to be upgraded before they can stock us on the shelves and that itself is expensive. To produce 10,000 packages is about $1.5 million and for me as a small guy that isn’t economical at all. While 10,000 upgraded packages may be about a year’s supply; that is one product and I have 10 products, so do the math,” the young man said.
However, he is not giving up, as he has already begun looking at the prospects of bringing packaging machines to Guyana and in turn providing discounted alternatives to other small businesses.
“Going through the business year after year, I realised that I love to make money. So, if I invest $10,000 and I see $20,000 or $30,000, it is encouraging to make some more and now I have realised that if as a young person I can start a business and I can show persons that you can be any age to be not technically rich but to have something to your name.
“For young business people, try not to do plenty spending and do too much promotion, because when promotions are given you have to spend money with the hope of getting some returns and sometimes when you are now coming on to the market, it is not advisable.”
Persons who are desirous of gaining access to Hestick’s products can check them out on Facebook at Alpha Products or call him on 629-2891.