Smaller can be better. It’s the approachIsle Chix Managing Director Alexx Antaeus took when he decided to venture into the poultry biz two years ago.

“We realised competing in the regular chicken market was an impossibility given that bigger companies had dominance, so we realised we needed to create our own product that nobody else had in the meat market,” Antaeus explained. The quest for novelty gave way to the establishment of a six-acre chicklet-producing farm in Osbourne Store, Clarendon, in 2010. The chicklets, smaller in size to regular chickens, and referred to as Cornish hens elsewhere, have brought Antaeus steadily rising success.

Speaking with Thursday Food last Wednesday, following the launch of Isle Chix’s new smoked chicklet product line at The Acropolis in Barbican, Antaeus said he’s

proud of the marked development of his almost two-year-old poultry company.

“The way things are developing,

we will possibly have to expand within the next year,” he divulged, pointing out that he has a clientele that is mushrooming beyond Jamaica’s shores.

“We already have approval to export the smoked chicklets to Hong Kong and Taiwan, and we are in negotiations with Thailand, Singapore and Japan.”

Antaeus added that the Caribbean region and the United States are also on his export radar, and the presence of United States Ambassador Pamela Bridgewater at last week’s launch could augur well for Isle Chix.

By 2013, Antaeus is projecting exponential growth for his company that currently has an employment roll of 25 persons, and at any one time has between 15,000 and 20,000 chicklets growing in the six coops. “We are looking at opening another farm on the northern part of the island, between

Ocho Rios and Montego Bay, to serve the hospitality market, because we have an increase in orders from hotels on the north coast,” he revealed.

Isle Chix chicklets are currently retailed

at major supermarkets including MegaMart, Hi-Lo, Shoppers Fair, Loshusan, John R Wong, and General Foods.