Sandra Craig is ready – ready for her natural fruit-flavoured barbecue sauce to become a household name.
Craig, a long-time whiz in the kitchen, has been using her gourmet talents to power her entrepreneurial dreams for many years now, first selling her home-made meals to patrons at the sports complex for which she and her husband served as caretakers before starting a snackette with her cricketer son, Shemroy, at Orange Walk, Bourda. Her only son would go on to provide the impetus for her new business when he pleaded: “Mommy, let we do barbecue”.
Craig, who has never been one to sit on her laurels, soon started experimenting by
adding pineapple to store-bought barbecue sauce and customers loved the result. Her next step – making the barbecue sauce from scratch. Then “a vision came to me: try passion fruit…I gave it to my children, I gave it to my customers; they loved it. Within the first five days after, I experimented with different flavours and I came up with seven… the seven flavours of SS Natural Fruit-Flavoured Barbecue Sauce.”
That was in 2011. Craig soon realised that she had a winner on her hands with the delicious yet healthy and nutritious sauce, and handed over the snackette business to one of her two daughters to pursue her vision for the brand. Those early years were hard, she reflected. “People liked the product”, but obtaining financing from the traditional institutions was impossible, as she was unable to meet their requirements, the widow of eight years said, as she lauded her children
for their support, financial and otherwise, revealing that in addition to initially financing the snackette, her son designed the product labels.
“Sometimes, you mightn’t have money, but the love your family shows can carry you a far way,” she declared, before disclosing that the SS in the brand name represented the first initial of herself and children.
Over the years, Craig has persevered and remained optimistic, despite the many setbacks encountered, including would-be partners demanding too much percentage of the business in exchange for financing – offers she was astute enough to turn down, and deals that have fallen through.
“Whatever vision you get, go for it….don’t sit down on it, go for the gold,” advised the agro-processor, who has ensured that her products have been tested and approved by the Food and Drug Department, her business has been registered, and has taken numerous workshops and training opportunities to improve her knowledge and skills.
“I can’t even start to tell you the lessons I learnt. I started with the little that I had and thankfully I passed that hurdle.”
All of that effort and hard work is paying off. At the “Uncapped” agro-processors expo last month, the impeccable packaging of the barbecue sauce caught the eye and the intriguing flavours – mango, sour-sop, tamarind, golden apple, passion fruit, pineapple, and ginger and garlic – the imagination. And, boy, did the sauces pack a punch – a distinctive, refreshing take on delicious barbecue sauce. “Uncapped” was only one of many exhibitions at which the SS brand has featured locally and abroad, as Craig, with the aid of the Guyana Marketing Corporation (the major outlet so far for the sauces); the Small Business Bureau and other organisations and individuals, works to create an effective marketing system – which remains one of her biggest hurdles.
The response thus far has been great, the trained social worker enthused. Her products sold out at the 13th Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA), held in August in Barbados, and several overseas-based buyers indicated interest. “I didn’t expect it of the Bajans,” she said with a soft, joyous laugh.
Now, as she closes in on finalising a major overseas order and talks with an investor, Craig’s dreams of seeing her products “all over” may be beginning to come true. She expressed gratitude to all the persons and organisations that have made it possible, including Carla Fraser of Natural Fibers.
Contact: 58 Orange Walk, Bourda, Georgetown, Guyana; 695-7627
