Rita Hilton — Blazing trails in business

RITA Hilton, owner of Carita, is revolutionising the agro-processing industry in Jamaica and the world is taking notice. Last month her company, Carita Jamaica, was named Best Import/Export Company at the 2018 Business Excellence Awards.

The awards, sponsored by ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching firm, honour the “best of the best” results in small and medium-sized businesses from around the world, and showcases exceptional results for business owners, entrepreneurs, their teams and their companies.

Hilton’s company, Carita Jamaica, is an exporter of fresh products and processed foods from Jamaica. Carita not only grows produce for export, it also sources produce from local farmers across Jamaica, thus supporting local rural communities. She has made a name for her company in the export industry in Jamaica, mastering the process and systems from order to sourcing to delivery in the short time required for fresh produce export.

Yet if you’d told her when she was younger that she would be in the agriculture export business, Hilton probably would have laughed. Her first career was in teaching, which she did passionately for over 20 years at Mount Alvernia and St Hugh’s high schools in Jamaica.

All that changed though in 1984 when she founded Incorporated Marketing Developments Limited, a year-round exporter of fresh seasonings, vegetables and ground provisions from Jamaica to the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.

So what led her to make this switch from teaching to agricultural export?

“I did this based on my passion for Jamaican food, and wanting the world to access it — not from cans, but fresh, just as we consume it in Jamaica. I built this firm from one person to over 30 employees today,” she shared.

The transition from teacher to business owner meant a lot of learning and growing; however, Hilton was very open to this and tackled every obstacle that came her way. For her, failure simply wasn’t an option.

“I needed to contribute to the improved lives of my children and the income from the business needed to fund my children’s education up to the tertiary level, which it did. Getting it to do so meant I had to grow the business, and once it started to grow, I kept at it.”

Coupled with her passion for food, Hilton has a passion for rural communities that led to her decision to partner with local farmers to provide produce for export.

“I live in a rural agricultural community and have seen the lives of the families there. I understand how critical it is to earn enough to care for a family, and also to remain in communities of birth or with extended family without having to migrate to towns and cities where earning a living can be very difficult. This has fuelled my commitment to source from rural farmers and to always keep looking for new suppliers and also engaging them and national partners in farming improvement techniques,” she said.

Her decision to partner with local farmers has not only benefited them, but ensures that Carita is able to source items and fill most orders to 100 per cent of needed quantity. This has resulted in Carita being the export logistics partner for Jamaica’s Banana Board for a programme geared at export market access for farmers.

For Hilton, learning has not only been on the farm and export logistics side, but also in business management, and this learning never stops.

“Although I am older than 70 years, I intend to keep growing the business. As long as there are opportunities I will go after them. My passion continues to energise me to keep growing and giving,” she said.

This passion has also led her to branch out into the industry of product development and innovation.

“The company has grown most recently [to include products like] breadfruit flour, vacuum-sealed ready to prepare produce, herbal teas, soup mixes, and frozen foods,” she said.

And her successes are not just hers, though, as she is committed to sharing and mentoring.

“I always share information, resources and contacts with those in the same industry and related fields. My willingness to share has brought me invitations to assist more and more people and the network I have built has resulted in others supporting my business through their own networks as well, so I usually have someone I am able to call on. Additionally, I am always mentoring young farmers and women business owners. This has meant an expansion of my farm community network and improvements within the sector that benefit all farmers. And with the support of other women business owners, I can find a resource in any field from IT to hospitality,” she said.

“By helping them dream big and achieve even more, I continue to dream and to dream big!”