TRADE Winds Citrus directors say the company is positioned for explosive growth with Wisynco’s acquisition of a 50 per cent stake in the Bog Walk-based juice manufacturer.

The deal, finalised earlier this week, pairs Jamaica’s leading juice company with one of the country’s top manufacturing and distribution businesses, both entities out of St Catherine. Trade Winds is behind the Tru Juice, Freshhh Fruit Drinks, Squeezz, Calico Jack and Wakefield brands, while White Marl-based Wisynco produces and distributes over 4,000 different products, including its own line of non-alcoholic beverages.

No financial details were released by the companies.

Wisynco, which services 8,000 outlets across the island, has a customer base estimated to be about four times that of Trade Winds — for instance, it was revealed at the signing ceremony in Bog Walk that Wisynco services over 600 schools compared to 250 schools for Trade Winds. Its sales, marketing and distribution reach will immediately open up opportunities for the juice company, Trade Winds director Peter McConnell explained.

“Any increase in the customer account will help my business, and Wisynco’s marketing expertise is well known — any brand they have touched in Jamaica that has any quality value they have turned it into a well known brand,” McConnell told Caribbean Business Report.

Trade Winds operates on a 2,900-acre estate that is divided into four farms. It grows and makes juices from fruits such as orange, cherry, otaheite apple, june plum, ortanique, sour sop and sorrel. The company has 300 direct employees and another 900 workers that are seasonal.

McConnell, who said the deal has been in the making since June, noted that the transaction will not result in job losses and the structure of the company will remain.

Trade Winds has immediate plans to add capacity and equipment over the next several months as it jockeys for growth in the local and overseas markets. The firm’s exports have particularly been restricted because of shelf life, a challenge which McConnel said will be tackled through the partnership.

“With Tru Juice now, all of our juices are chilled. Being chilled, there is a limited shelf life and there are limited exports because of shelf life, so that is something that we want to target,” he told this newspaper.

Among Wisynco’s own beverage brands are purified water product, Wata; cranberry-flavoured water, Cran Wata; Bigga soft drink; and energy drink, Boom. It also produces international brands such as Coca Cola, Sprite, Schweppes, Minute Maid and Hawaiian Punch under licensing agreements. The firm exports to several Caribbean markets, the US and the UK.

William Mahfood, the managing director of Wisynco, said that the Trade Winds buy-in afforded the firm the opportunity to completely round out its portfolio into a full complement of non-alcoholic beverages.

“We have one of the best portfolios but we had gaps — we didn’t have juice in our portfolios,” Mahfood said. “We are the only company now that can go from a 100 per cent super premium juice all the way down to bottled water.”

Mahfood said that the immediate focus will be on growing the existing Trade Winds brands, but noted that collaboration will take place over time towards new product development, including possible co-branding arrangements like those Wisynco had with former partner Ocean Spray.

It’s the second major merger in the competitive local beverage industry this year, following the formation of a joint venture between beer maker Red Stripe and Pepsi Jamaica in January.

Celebration Jamaica, the JV formed by Red Stripe and Pepsi, claims to be the largest beverage distributorship on the island. The alliance between Wisynco and Trade Winds is at least the biggest non-alcoholic beverage business in the region, said Mahfood.

The transaction also represents the partnering of two of Jamaica’s most successful family-owned businesses. Mahfood hailed the deal as a symbol of collaboration among traditional Jamaican businesses in the face of challenges of forging such partnerships.

“The mindset of traditional Jamaican business people is that they have a difficulty accepting partnership in a business where maybe they don’t have control. What we see as an opportunity is that there are similarities in the values of these two organisations, not just at the director and shareholders level but also when you look at the employees and even the culture,” he said.

McConnell said that he wanted a 50 per cent buy-in as he wanted a partner that was fully committed to the business.

“I wanted a committed partner who is going to put all their energies and effort into helping to build our brand, so it isn’t a case of them building my brand, but ‘our’ brand,” McConnell said.

“The experience (Wisynco had) with Ocean Spray would have influenced their decision too; they don’t want to come in at a 10 per cent or 20 per cent, they want to come in as a significant and meaningful partner, so when they put their effort behind growing a brand, they are not doing it for someone else but themselves and their partners,” he said.