Honey Bun

more like almost 20 to 1. The significant slide caused a lot of changes in our economy, and one of the things that went up was the cost of renting a retail outlet. So we decided that we would give up the retail outlet and go into wholesale.” The abrupt shift in focus gave birth to a concept Chong now calls “C2O,” or Challenges to Opportunity, in which Honey Bun employees are trained to look at obstacles – large or small – with an eye toward how to get around them, rather than viewing them as unconquerable barriers to progress. Thus, when the economy turned sour, the company didn’t shutter its doors. Instead, it invested in equipment needed for wholesale production, cut back on its product line to include only the proven commodities it had been making and began producing them in wholesale, rather than retail volume. Retail space that was no longer feasible because of increased rental costs was closed, and products were immediately packaged for wholesale distribution, rather than point-of-sale transactions. “We welcomed it,” she said. “It’s a lot easier to produce a lot of fewer products than it is to produce several products for a retail operation. When you’re in retail, you also have to remember that at the end of the day when the last customer comes, you have to have enough variety to sell that customer. But when that last customer has left, everything else that you’re looking at are day-old products.” Looking back, Chong said, even amid the initial chaos, the transition made life a lot more efficient. And as it turned out, the product that validated the change in approach was a wholly uncomplicated one. Only one other company on the island was producing donuts for wholesale, she said, so she and her staff took it upon themselves to hit the road to contact every supplier and retailer they were aware of, to let them know Honey Bun was now ready, willing and able to handle their wholesale donut business. The response was immediate, she said, so much so that when the facility opened its doors each morning at 6, disputes would arise between vendors over which ones would get access to the supply on hand. “It was really overwhelming,” Chong said, “and almost difficult, because they would fight for the products that we had. We couldn’t make enough, and it was like that every morning. It was an exciting time for us and it helped tremendously at that point.” In the intervening two decades, Honey Bun has evolved into a 24/7 enterprise that employs more than 200 people, has earned multiple national awards for both process and quality and has established a footprint in markets throughout the Caribbean, North America and Europe while spreading a buoyant taste message it happily labels as “a little love in every bite.” The company launched a cream-filled cake finger – dubbed the “Goldie” – in August 2012 to celebrate Jamaica’s 50th Golden Jubilee, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence. The Goldie was produced after significant investment into specialized machinery to help facilitate its production, in keeping with Honey Bun’s first-world operational standards. And, Chong said, she’s never once second-guessed the initial decisions to give it a go – not in the early days with a fledgling operation; and not these days, when the issues on her agenda have a much broader scope and impact. “It has been tremendous for me, personally,” she said. “Everybody in Jamaica, when they get an opportunity to go into business, they do it. It’s a cultural thing that nobody thinks twice about. My father was in business. A lot of the family has been in business. So it’s not been a difficulty.”