IT was after her parents lost their two-decade-old farm called ‘Spring Vale’ in 1998 that Sandra McLeish, owner of Spring Vale Enterprises, entertained the idea of becoming an entrepreneur.

“Spring Vale’s genesis started in a memory. My family had a farm in St Mary. I grew up on that farm all my childhood. It was our sustenance; how we made our living. We supplied supermarkets islandwide with produce and fruits,” McLeish, who was selected as one of National Bakery’s Bold Ones: New Champions of Manufacturing awardees in January told Career & Education.

“One day all of that changed for the worse when my parents could not afford to manage the farm any longer, so they sold the farm and moved to Kingston. It broke my father’s heart to sell Spring Vale, so I decided to start a business with the work ethic my father taught me — in a bottle.”

Spring Vale Enterprises sells 100 per cent Jamaican fruit and herb-based salad dressings and vinaigrettes made from a farm McLeish owns near the place where her father grew up in Shewsbury, Portland.

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, she was serving in Guyana as the head of strategic information and communication at Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS, the Ministry of Health, Jamaica, and Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training Centre Network.

Comparing the world of entrepreneurship and the world of officialdom, she said the benefits of being an entrepreneur far outweigh the other.

“I feel empowered owning and running my own business and realising there is no limit to what we can develop and achieve. Since our launch, we have recorded steady growth in all aspects of the business including human resources, assets, customers, professional affiliations and increased strategic planning. In the last quarter alone, we delivered 800 cases locally in sales and we also did our first major export to the Eastern Caribbean,” McLeish said.

After being in business for three years, Spring Vale was named one of eight under the National Bakery’s Bold Ones: New Champions of Manufacturing initiative, allowing the business free promotion at a booth at Expo Jamaica 2014 between April 3-6; and advertisement on some trucks which transport bread islandwide.

This is one of her major achievements to date.