Business View Caribbean | February 2021

59 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN FEBRUARY 2021 resin converters limited 69-72FrederickSe�lement, IndustrialEstate,Caroni,Trinidad,West Indies Telephone: (868)285-9105,Fax: (868)663-6574 Email: rclmail@resin�.com RCL is an industry leader in the field of Packaging Solu�ons. We have state of the art equipment that is capable of producing the best quality products. The range of products and services we offer are:  Bo�les (HPDE and PET) and covers in a wide range of sizes for applica�on in the Chemical, Food, Petrochemical and other Industries.  Contract Bo�le Manufacture.  Film Packaging.  In House Labelling Capabili�es.  Manufacturer of shrink shee�ng, bailer bags, plain bags. ACHIEVEMENTS  Prime Minister Exporter of the Year 2009.  Maintained the highest share of the local Contract Bo�le Manufacture Market.  First to Recycle All Internally Generated Plas�cs thus reducing Carbon Footprints. Customer SATISFACTION GUARANTEED with all our products Contact Informa�on: Ian Sirju (Sales Manager) Tel: (868) 285-9015 EXT. 241 Mobile: (868) 360-5286 Email: isirju@resin�.com YOUR UNIQUE FLAVOURING ADVANTAGE 1•868•622•2070 www.StuartBrothersLtd.com Celebrating our long standing relationship with RHS Marketing Ltd. Stuart Brothers (West Indies) Limited is the longest established manufacturer of flavouring concentrates in the Caribbean, starting in Trinidad in 1950. RHS MARKET ING L IMI TED shows in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.” Sankar discloses that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, he’d relied on trade shows to market Karibbean Flavours outside of Trinidad, but with the health crisis shutting down borders and expediting the decline of the convention tourism/ live events industry, he’s had to shift the corporate mentality to doing things a little differently. “We’ve had to keep up because competition is really tough out there,” the owner explains. “There’s been a lot of new, small manufacturers popping up, so we try to stay ahead of the game. That’s true even of our larger competitors. We tend to find them following us as we create and launch products that we think the market will want to buy. We’ve had to become market leaders and changers.” That’s essentially what brought Laggan on board as a brand ambassador; as the pandemic raged on, and people were asked to avoid public places like restaurants, many of them turned to YouTube channels like Trini Cooking With Natasha for tips on how to make food, from scratch, at home. “She promoted a lot of our products on her channel, so I continued to get a lot of movement in the supermarkets,” Sankar says. “I didn’t really have to do any promotions; social media took care of our marketing during that period. And I’d say, lucky for us, we did well during COVID.” According to Sankar, the pandemic itself has been a recipe for changing people’s cooking habits and tastes. “People are all looking for specialty ingredients because they happened to find a recipe on Facebook, on Pinterest, on Instagram that they wanted to try,” he says. “Based on our portfolio, we have spices from everywhere: India, Egypt, Turkey, China. A lot of different spices. We’ve found that there’s been an increase in the overall amount of ingredients being purchased by our customers. And people have been much more open to trying new things that they wouldn’t normally eat or drink.” Another aspect of RHS that’s seen massive changes has been the level of technology applied in their food processing techniques. “We started