Honey Bun is preparing to usher in a new era of leadership with the planned elevation of Deputy CEO Daniel Chong to the top role later this year, a move that signals continuity in the company’s succession planning amid an aggressive expansion plan.

Daniel, a Canadian-trained engineer and son of Honey Bun founders Herbert and Michelle Chong, has been instrumental in overseeing the company’s most ambitious undertaking to date — its 60,000-square-foot manufacturing expansion at Angels in St Catherine. With that project nearing completion, the leadership transition is expected to place a new generation at the helm of the family-led bakery.

“Daniel knows everything about this company, probably more than I do,” Michelle Chong told shareholders during the company’s annual general meeting on Wednesday, March 26, ahead of the announcement. “He started here frying doughnuts at 14, and today he’s the one overseeing our largest capital project to date.”

“So Daniel — and I think this is probably the first he’s hearing this — will be made CEO sometime this year after the project. He is an upscaled version of me, and I just wanted to share that with you. It’s wrapped up in a lot of things: family, business, succession planning… a time for everything,” she said. The event was held at the Courtleigh hotel in St Andrew.

As her son takes on greater operational leadership, Michelle — the current CEO — is stepping back from the day-to-day running of the business she and her husband built over four decades ago, to concentrate on the Honey Bun Foundation and other legacy-building projects.

Founded in 1982, Honey Bun started as a small retail bakery in Kingston. Over the years, it transformed into one of the most recognised wholesale baking operations in the country, known for its individually packaged pastries, cinnamon rolls, cheese bread, and more recently its Buccaneer Jamaican Rum Cakes — products that now reach markets across the Caribbean, North America, and the United Kingdom.

In 2011, Honey Bun became a listed company on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange. Since then, it has consistently reported revenue growth and expanded its footprint globally.

This year, Honey Bun is projected to surpass $4 billion in annual revenue for the first time, driven in part by a planned 150 per cent expansion in production capacity with the build-out of its new facility in Angels.

The expansion will allow the company to meet growing local demand, increase exports, and enhance efficiency, particularly for hotel and retail supply. Key product lines such as rum cakes, burger buns, and cinnamon rolls are being prioritised for scale.

While the production side of the business scales up under new leadership, Michelle is turning her attention outward — toward the entrepreneurs and business owners who make up Jamaica’s backbone, through the Honey Bun Foundation.

“The foundation is really a personal thing. When we were putting our mission statement together — to lead through innovation, achieve success for our stakeholders, shareholders, staff, suppliers, and serve the greater good of mankind — that was what touched me.

“Being in business for over 40 years, I cannot just die. I have to leave something for the next generation. So it was on my heart to serve by building business models that I have learned — not to have one-one business, but to really develop something and document it,” Michelle told shareholders, adding that she will also be writing a book on models for businesses.

“Because, in my mind, business is really not that hard. It’s just that people don’t know how to run businesses,” she continued.

Launched in 2019, Honey Bun Foundation pairs qualified SMEs with advisors through its advisory committee model, which provides entrepreneurs with guidance for 12 months to execute major objectives that will take their companies to the next level. Dawson Trading, one of the beneficiaries of the programme, increased its revenues by 50 per cent and scaled from a small to medium-sized business within two years.

The foundation also has in place a Gapp App, a business diagnostic tool that identifies gaps within existing businesses and points them to where they can get support.

Now, with Michelle’s undivided attention, the foundation is preparing to launch a new back-office support service that will offer accounting, marketing, and operational assistance to micro and small enterprises that can’t afford to outsource. Honey Bun will be the first to fund the pilot, but Michelle is calling on the private sector to match the effort.

“Those of you in the private sector who are heads of business, we will be coming to you for funding. This is my first pledge for money; and if anybody wants to volunteer, we’re open to it,” she said.