ROSE HALL, St James

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than 50 employees of Caribbean Producers Jamaica (CPJ) received cash and prizes totalling over $3 million during the company’s annual staff awards ceremony held recently at the Palmyra at Rose Hall in St James. Delivery driver David Johnson was the toast of the awardees, copping the Employee of the Year award as well as the Top Performer Driver award.Other major awards went to Odette Knight, Manager of the Year; O’neil Murdock, Junior Manager of the Year; Jennifer Reid, Assistant Manager of the Year; Devon Fearon, Supervisor of the Year; Michael Turner, Chairman’s Choice Award; while the company’s meat plant operations was named the Department of the Year.CPJ Co-chairman Mark Hart had high praise for the awardees as well as the company’s over 400 other employees.“We are excited to be here recognising those who are getting awards, but there are also people in the company who are not getting an award tonight, but they are doing a great job, so I would just like to big up everybody,” said Hart.Hart said the 23-year-old company has grown leaps and bounds since it was founded by Co-chairman Tom Tyler and himself.During CPJ’s last financial year, the company total sales stood at about US$100 million, a roughly 10 per cent increase over the previous year.Hart said the company is now positioning itself for further growth.“It’s always a challenge to be as good as the previous year, but we can’t complain. The industry that we are in, we see prospects for growth and we are positioning ourselves to take advantage of the opportunities that will come our way,” he told the

Jamaica Observer West.Tyler added that with the recent appointment of Dr David Lowe as the company’s CEO, CPJ is poised for further growth.“David has been in the company for five years, and he has energised the company and is creating a much stronger base operationally…. so we are poised to take the next step forward,” Tyler said confidently.Meanwhile, Reggae artiste Tarrus Riley had the CPJ employees in a frenzy as he belted out hit after hit during his performance in the entertainment segment of the ceremony.He scored heavily with songs such as She’s Royal, Start A New, Stay with you, Beware, Lion Paw, Human Nature, Groovy Little Thing and Good Girls Gone Bad.