THE property that once housed the very popular Highgate brand of chocolate located in Richmond, St Mary, has been converted into a multi-purpose facility where the husband and wife pair of Leroy and Melisia Britton now operate L&M Casket Supplies.

In addition to the building of caskets, a small area on the outside of the main factory building is used as a plant nursery where pepper, tomato, callaloo, cabbage, and lettuce seedlings are grown for sale to farmers. A section of the factory is also rented for the staging of community events including plays, dances, and graduations ceremonies, among other activities.

Chocolates produced by Highgate Foods took the local and international markets in whirlwind fashion earning notoriety for its taste, packaging and variety, with the fruit and nut offering being particularly popular. The company then experienced problems which led to its eventual demise in 2006. The closure of the Highgate factory led to workers losing their jobs and the eventual decline of the once prosperous town of Richmond, where most of the workforce were domiciled.

With the factory space idle, the Britton’s have stepped in to fill the void.

“Business is great. I have been in the business for six years; we do casket manufacturing. We are a supplier to a number of funeral homes as far away from Richmond as Westmoreland and Trelawny,” Mrs Britton told the team from Jamaica Observer North and East while indicating that they moved to the location only last year.

Melisia Britton informed that when her husband and herself took over the factory, was in ruins.

“When we bought this place, it was just four walls because the building was vandalised. The entire roof was off, all the doors, all the windows were missing; they were taken away. All we got were the walls. That’s all we got, but we thought it was a good investment,” Mr Britton added.

The couple said moving to the Richmond location, despite the many stories of how “dead” the town of Richmond is, was not of major concern to them.

“The effect of transferring to this area did not affect the business,” Mr Britton said.

“Right now we employ 15 people, some are from the community, some are from Kingston, some are from as far as St Elizabeth, where we can find good casket makers,” he said.

The company makes and supplies several different types of caskets including: the Benz, wineglass and rope box, which are considered top of the line; the round top and the f style.

The couple explained that it takes approximately two days to a week to construct a casket and pointed out that it varied because of the process which includes, “building, sanding, spraying/painting, quilting and angling”. The building process is when the casket is shaped before it is sanded to acquire smoothness, following which it is sprayed for design before the inside material or quilt is added. The wood used to construct the caskets ranges from putnoe to cedar to mahoe.

But with all this hard work, the couple insists that the profit is made by funeral homes and not so much by the company.

“It is really difficult sometimes, but we manage. We work hard. We know where our position is in the system but we watch and see how things progress,” Mr Britton said.

The Brittons say they are very conscious of their community responsibility.

“What we do for the people within the community of St Mary, is that we sell them caskets at cost price. Anyone can visit us at the Richmond, St Mary to buy a casket. “We are very open to the walk-in customers,” Mrs Britton said.

The couple tries to make full use of the space they have at their disposal.

“We have a big area which we call the auditorium. This area is regularly rented out to hold a variety of activities. Only last week we hosted a play featuring the very popular Shebada.

“Sometimes the place is rented for the keeping of dances and other such activity. It is for the company to earn,” Leroy Britton said.

Despite the challenges faced by all businesses at the present time, Melisia and Leroy Britton are very optimistic that their operations will expand with time.

“I’m pretty sure that as the years go by we will have the opportunity to expand the business and that will be good for the community and for us,” Leroy Britton said.