The owners of a roots drinks manufacturing operation in Brown's Town, St Ann, have invested $250 million in the business which, they hope, will propel the company to the top of the roots drinks market and also to the position of top manufacturer and employer in that community.

After an initial input of $200 million over a three-year period that got the 15,000 square-foot factory ready, Roxy Industries started production in February 2007 and so far has three products on the market - Roosta Roots Drinks, their flagship product; Summer Bounce bag drinks, which is made from fruit juice; and Sling Shot roots wine.

Olatunde Oladele (left) and Crystal Ball from the marketing department.

"Sales are very good, the potential is there for great things and we're not even up and running fully," Olatunde Oladele, technical vice president in charge of product development and quality control at Roxy Industries, told the Business Observer.

The Nigerian-born Oladele is in charge of the company's in-house quality control laboratory testing facility. According to Oladele, another $50 - $60 million is needed to get the factory to the level where it can start generating enough income, that is, "running fully". That will take another two years.
The products are yet to reach all parishes, but already there are plans for the export market as two of the directors of the company are based overseas and have initiated proceedings in this regard.

"We're looking at the export market as we have orders," said Oladele. "One of our directors lives in England and another in the US, so we're looking at two to three containers per week, each with 5,000 cases."
Information posted on the company's website says that Roosta will be sold in Jamaica, the Caribbean, United States, Europe, Africa and Asia, with Roxy International LLC responsible for distribution on the continents.

The company also plans to explore the tourist market and expand its line of products, upon completion of the factory, to include side herbal teas and spices.
Roxy Industries is expected to start producing at full capacity early 2008 at which time it should be turning out around 3,000 cases per day (each with 24 5oz bottles) of Roosta Roots drink, and would have also increased its staff contingent from the present 35 to between 120 and 150.

The name Roosta was developed by Roxy's chairman, president and CEO, the Columbia University-trained Albert Poyser (who has master's degrees in Economics and Education) and is derived from a combination of roots and stamina.
Roosta enters a market that has seen several other roots drinks in recent years, Baba Roots and Zion Roots being two of them.
"People say it (Roosta) tastes like Zion Roots and that's a good thing. Zion Roots used to be the flagship product in the roots market," said Oladele.

However, he is confident that Roosta, unlike many other roots drinks, will withstand the test of time.
"Quality will be maintained, quality control is number one," said Oladele. "We intend to take our time to get things right, do a lot of testing and sampling, a lot of quality control development. We don't put a product out just like that, we have to test it and get it tried and proven and so on and then put it out on the market."

Roosta, he explained, is a blend of several traditional organically grown Jamaican plants, herbs and roots, including chainy root, sarsaparilla, search-mi-heart, blood wiss, medinacoconut root, and several others. Sugar, molasses, honey and mint are also added. The plant is approved by the Jamaica Bureau of Standards, the company said. Additional certification will be sought from HACCP and ISO.

The board of directors is completed by Dr George W Morris, senior vice president operations and international sales; Paul Webster Haye, vice president European sales; Howard Hilton, secretary; Danny Bisasor and Monica Haye.

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