Brownie added to the Kiss line
A year after moving the production of Kiss cakes to Jamaica, the Jamaica Biscuit Company (Jambisco) is aggressive in its push to secure greater market share.
Following numerous requests from customers over the years, Jambisco began its production of the Kiss brand in Jamaica last January with an orange-flavoured cake. Back then, Operations Manager Rory Mitchell told the Jamaica Observer that the plant was running at roughly 20 per cent capacity. But Jambisco has since moved to create greater efficiency with the introduction of Kiss cakes’ rich chocolate, orange with strawberry icing and coconut-flavoured cakes.
In June the company also introduced its blueberry and chocolate-flavoured muffins in supermarkets, wholesales and convenient stores. The latest product is the Kiss Brownie made from dark chocolate.
Kiss cakes, which were originally manufactured in Trinidad and Tobago by Kiss Baking Company, were previously imported to Jamaica and distributed by Jambisco, both of which operates under Bermudez Group Ltd.
Prior to the reintroduction, the product had been off the shelves of supermarkets for more than a decade, leaving a void in the market. That gap was partially plugged when Honeybun launched ‘Goldie’ — a light sponge cake injected with vanilla cream, similar to the Kiss cakes being produced in Trinidad.
So far Jambisco has provided employment for an additional 100 people for carry out operations at the new production facility. It’s unclear if the company has since beefed up staff to supply demand of the portfolio of products from the local market.
Yesterday the Business Observer tried to get a comment from Mitchell on the vision for the local market but up to press time was unsuccessful.
Jambisco — which also manufactures Excelsior Cheese Crunchies, animal crackers, Smoothies sandwich creams, Bran & Oats and Excelsior Snackers crackers — had plans of exporting Kiss cakes to the United States. It’s one of the markets to which Jambisco is already exporting Excelsior crackers in order to satisfy the demand of Jamaicans in the Diaspora, in addition to Europe and the Caribbean.
