Say the word Bresheh and if you are from rural Jamaica, the mind would immediately be fixated on breadfruit. However, in the corporate circles, the name has been aligned with bags for the better part of the last seven years. The entity was started by two young brothers from St Thomas, and the bags they make have grown in popularity. Here is the story of a company, still in its infancy, but with administrators who are bent on blazing a path where none was before.

“I started the company with my brother Davian McLaren. We started on our verandah…in Rockfort, Kingston,” Randy Makk, the CEO of Bresheh Limited, told the Jamaica Observer. Makk said at the time he was performing mostly as a dub poet, doing corporate events locally and across the region.

A college dropout, leaving The University of the West Indies, Mona with one course outstanding, Makk said he had an inkling to do something more and tapping his younger sibling Davian, they set about to make bags, though none of them had formal training in design or sewing.

“We had an old domestic machine on the verandah which my brother practised on. We bought varieties of bags and picked them apart to see how they were made. My brother eventually was a self-taught designer,” Makk shared.

“We decided to formalise in August 2015 and spent $34,000 to get our first industrial [sewing] machine. We did cutting, storage, pattern making, construction, and took orders all in the same space on the verandah. We started very small. It was not a fancy operation and not one started with millions of dollars.”

Makk said after much trial and error and using friends and family members as critics, they decided to launch.

“When we had designed we were comfortable with, we posted three photos of designs on social media. We secured the first three orders, took the 50 per cent deposit and bought material, thread, zips. That’s how the company started with its first order.”

From that he said, he branched out into school bags, targeting that market in August.

“We offered personal colours, initials and other features which helped us in the beginning,” he said.

“After the school market we targeted reggae festivals with bags tailored for patrons such as crossbody bags suited for casual and leisure.”

Then, Bresheh was still being operated from the verandah of his family home in Rockfort, Kingston.

Makk said the space was crammed and uncomfortable, serving as factory, office, design studio, warehouse and in some cases, retail store for those who ventured into the community to collect the bags that were ordered. Others who were afraid to venture into Rockfort had their bags couriered to them.

But even though the bags were getting attention — Makk said an interview I did with him in 2016, a year after launch, was his first media appearance with the product and helped to boost sales — things were not looking good on the financial side.

“One of the things I have committed to as a young entrepreneur is not to paint the wrong picture. We have nice photos on Instagram but it’s far from that [reality]. I remember my brother having to work long hours into the night trying to fill back-to-school orders. He was the only manufacturer.”

But enough money was not coming in.

“When we started out we were selling backpacks for $2,500. This was the same as the cost. We were excited by the orders but there was no markup, no profit. My brother entrusted me to manage sales, but I never understood,” he said of his inexperience in business at the time.

“I remember days when all we survived on was crackers and mint tea for breakfast, lunch and dinner because everything went back into the business. We did not understand pricing and margins. It was when I signed up with the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship that I learnt all these,” he reflected.

But Makk said there were other times when there were glimmers of hope.

“We have always played big, punching above our weight. At expos we looked nice and big and boasy, even at EXPO Jamaica at the [National] Arena.”

More attention, meant more business. The verandah was no longer viable with the orders that were coming in and inconveniencing family members just trying to move around the house. For Makk, it meant a new location would have to be found soon and new employees added, because his brother alone could not produce for all the orders coming in.

“When we hired our first employee, we moved to the sewing room at Alpha Boys for a few months. It did not work out and we had to go back home. Some would have thought about it as a downgrade or disappointment. But, we went back to take over both the verandah and living room. To me it was a symbol of growth.”

This he said happened between 2017 and 2018. Now, there was a burning desire to build out a better and bigger space and Makk started approaching banks and other institutions for funding, “but they were asking for audited accounts and they required at least three years in business. Nobody wanted to lend us money.”

Undaunted the brothers pushed on and later in 2018, they relocated from Kingston to Portmore in a three-bedroom house, which was now factory and home. “My brother who is five years younger than I am was still with me. We were more comfortable. We added more workers to the team.”

But low productivity among young people who were hired resulted in a dip in revenues and the company got into debt. Tough decisions had to be made to change that trajectory, and even though Makk said some were not the decisions he wanted to make, they had to be made if the business, which was now his bread and butter, was going to survive. Older individuals were hired until a mix was found that the company was satisfied with.

But issues remained, especially with the timing difference between when sales are made and when actual monies are collected. Makk reflects on having to tell his staff once, that he could not pay them.

“One of the most difficult times between the verandah and now is when we didn’t have money to pay staff. We were filling orders and not collecting payments. I had to stand in front of the team and say, “Yes, it’s payday but we have not received payments as yet. I crave your understanding.”

“It was not easy. People think it’s a smooth sailing journey in entrepreneurship. You will have to become vulnerable. You might have to beg a relative you do not like for money to keep things moving. If you are not resilient, you will become depressed.”

But having overcome that and seeing continued growth, the house was no longer viable for Bresheh products. The brothers then relocated to a bigger space in their present location in Kingston Bookshop Plaza in Portmore town centre.

Then the novel coronavirus pandemic put a spanner in the wheels again forcing the company to pivot and drop some products. The focus now was on the corporate market. Face masks were also introduced. But the line of school bags were dropped, luckily for the company, with schools shuttering for the better part of two years.

“People were falling in love with materials and patterns for which materials were not in supply. We decided to streamline. We launched the Roast by Breshe collection which was upmarket for young professionals and the luxury market.”

“For Roast we launched with only charcoal black, golden brown and ashy gray. We started with a backpack which was an instant hit. We were able to survive during COVID because we still had this corporate line,” he added.

An e-commerce website was added and by the final three months of 2021, Makk said things were turning around.

“We had our best last quarter in the final quarter 2021.”

Now as the company pivots, Makk said his dream is to see Bresheh become a household brand globally.

“Just as our music, and athletes are doing well on the global stage, wherever reggae and music are loved, we envision our products doing well in these spaces. We foresee our presence at music festivals in Europe. We want to be synonymous with Brand Jamaica. We will be reintroducing many of our original products, especially around Jamaica 60. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are also coming up as well and Bresheh will be targeting those.”