Butch hails GraceKennedy’s plan to go global

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

SANDALS Resorts International chairman Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart has lauded GraceKennedy’s plan to go global with its operations, saying that it represented good news for Jamaica.

“This is a welcome strategic move by Grace and one which many other companies should consider in the effort to help build and reposition Jamaica,” Stewart said in a statement yesterday.

He said that unless Jamaica aggressively focuses on earning its way instead of borrowing, there would be no secure future for the country.

“The need for export earnings should be an imperative for Jamaica at this time. As a policy, Jamaica needs to develop an army of people to create products for export,” Stewart, who is also chairman of the Observer, said, adding that the advent of the Internet was a strategic and invaluable tool to assist global marketing.

“We need to export as many of the wide range of good Jamaican products and services that can be exported. It’s not an easy task but it’s not rocket science. What is required is creativity and hard work,” Stewart said. “Our athletes, musicians, beverages and tourism have been solid trailblazers and have laid a good foundation for us to take advantage of and show that we can do it; that we can be world producers in a wide range of products and services.”

According to Stewart, the trailblazers had demonstrated that there is a market for things Jamaican which, in some instances, defies all logic. “It is for us as a nation to capitalise on this. Not so much trying to fathom how to capitalise on our athletes and singers, but how to use a variety of Jamaican goods and services to capitalise on the goodwill that they have helped to create; goodwill that is growing,” he said.

Stewart said the strategic plan announced by GraceKennedy last week at the Observer Monday Exchange is a natural progression of the proven track record of the company and the success of its products internationally over the years. He said it was timely for the company to seek to take its presence in the overseas market to a new level.

Observing that globalisation had reduced the world to an extended marketplace, he noted that the paradigm shift had already begun, as many new businesses worldwide had started charting a course to the world, in some cases bypassing local markets.

Stewart said that for Jamaica to overcome the challenges ahead, the thinking of all concerned needs to change so that a premium is placed on production and earning foreign exchange.

“The entire coast of Jamaica provides enormous opportunities for earning foreign exchange through rental of villas, restaurants, attractions and the sale of food and beverages directed at visitors,” he said. “These visitors who come to our shores via air or sea, utilise our transportation system, and consume vast quantities of food and beverages represent a source of foreign exchange.”

He said Jamaica had been slow to embrace the fact that the people who serve and cater to visitors are, in essence, involved in export and need to be regarded as such. “This is an important part of the new thinking and approach which would serve Jamaica well as it negotiates its way through the current challenges facing the world economy,” he said.

“The entire world is literally scrambling to attract tourists to their part of the planet. The golf states of the great United States of America have a most aggressive promotion and advertising programme on every US channel, in conjunction with BP, following the oil spill last year. Further north, New York City alone last year welcomed a record 51 million visitors as the 20-year ‘I Love New York’ campaign continues to be the flagbearer for New York’s tourism,” Stewart noted.

Therefore, he said, Jamaica’s drive to export our tourism has more than hefty competition from all the continents of the world as more and more nations grasp the potential of this great foreign exchange earner. “We have the ability, we have the product; we can do it,” Stewart said.

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Butch hails GraceKennedy’s plan to go global