MONTEGO BAY, St James — More than 50 employees of the Caribbean Producers Jamaica (CPJ) Ltd received awards for outstanding service at an elaborate ceremony at the Iberostar Grand Resort in Rose Hall on Saturday.

Hospitality sales representative Jermmaine Christie, who has been employed to the 15-year-old company for three years copped the prestigious employee of the year award, while Winston Prendigast was named manager of the year.

Other persons snagging major awards were Micheal Aird, direct sales distribution (DSD) representative of the year; Wayne Sylvester, pre- sales representative of the year; and Valentine Robinson who was adjudged hospitality representative of the year.

According to Petra-Ann Williamson, the company’s human resource manager, the awardees were chosen because of their good work ethics and dedicated service to the organisation.

” They have all gone the extra mile; they went above and beyond the call of duty,” Williamson told the Observer West.

CPJ chief executive officer, Mark Hart lauded the awardees for their contribution and urged the company’s more than 240 employees to “continue to go the extra mile.”

“We are really proud of you guys. You are the ones who make CPJ, because without your contribution we would not exist,” said Hart.

Tom Tyler CPJ’s co- chairman spoke of plans by the company to expand its distributive network.

” The future for CPJ looks bright,” Tyler said. ” We are going to expand our technical division; we have started to supply chemical and pool supplies to the hotels; we are going to relocate our juice plant and build a meat plant.”

President of Quality Management Consultancy, Nsombi Jaja, who is also a noted motivational speaker, urged the employees to take their jobs seriously, and to continue to provide excellent service.

Speaking under the theme “count your blessings and they will multiply, count you troubles and they will multiply,” she challenged the employees to shift their thinking from “scarcity” to “abundance.”