Cockpit Country Jamaican Jerk
Doug Lindsay, brother of former banker Delroy Lindsay and Jamaica Observer Table Talk Food Awards judge and attorney-at-law Annaliesa Lindsay, has lived in Australia for almost three decades. The Sydney resident who was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and attended St George’s College prior to moving to Vancouver, Canada, for studies, tells Thursday Food that he married an Australian and left one Commonwealth country for another.
Indeed, the one-time senior executive in banking, finance and retail [he now invests in businesses] has ventured into food by way of jerk seasoning. “I spent some of my formative years in Faith’s Pen (which is one of three celebrated street food spots in Jamaica); Boston and Spur Tree Hill being the others,” he informs in anticipation, we reckon, of our next prod, asking about Cockpit Country Jamaican Jerk. Necessity, we soon glean, even ‘Down Under’, continues to be the mother of invention.
“A couple of years ago I ran out of jerk seasoning and was struggling to get new supplies. I went online to buy but never quite finished the transaction. I am a pretty good cook and being a Faith’s Pen guy, I had an idea that I could make my own seasoning. I used to entertain my friends once every three months or so, and they all loved my jerk seasoning. In fact, some would even enquire which brand I was using… I gave them some to try at home. People started offering to buy and that’s how the ball got rolling,” he discloses.
The ball’s been rolling for 18 plus months but not before careful tweaking before launching the brand to the public. Lindsay is now very happy with the product’s taste profile and branding.
He’s not the only one! Cockpit Country Jerk has been embraced by wholesalers, retailers and butcher shops. “We have a business plan that we stick to quite stringently… Having worked for both big retailers in Australia, I have chosen not to introduce the brand into those channels at this time,” Lindsay explains.
His strategy is to introduce the products where people buy meat. He started with butcher shops that had multiple stores and conducted tastings at stores. He subsequently approached select wholesale businesses that serve ethnic communities.
“The initial feedback was very positive and encouraged us to keep pushing on… The product is primarily for the markets in the Antipodes; however, we have sold product to individuals in multiple countries around the world,” he informs.
Something tells us that Cockpit Country Jerk will soon resonate globally.