Business View Caribbean | Volume 8, Issue 7

55 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 8, ISSUE 7 take the products to your home. That direct- to-home complement within the company’s logistics ensures you can get an ice cream at your door if you so desire. Stuart believes, in the grand context of ice cream, most people have a preference for vanilla. He notes, “Of course, there are some pretty nice things we’re doing in terms of our R & D work but they are not for public consumption at this stage. However, I can tell you that vanilla is the one flavor that people tend to navigate towards. We are also seeing trends where people explore the ice cream flavors.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, many lifestyle changes took place – lockdowns, slow recovery with people getting back into work, etc. “In those lockdown periods, people were at home with their families and they would buy indulgent foods in larger batches when they had a chance to shop,” Stuart explains.“They’d stock up their fridges with things for the kids to binge on in the confines of their home. So for us, it was pretty much an even footing with volume of sales, because rather than buying in smaller bundles, people knew they had to make larger planned purchases.” Employee tenure at BICO is high… for good reason. “We are driven largely by the ‘halo’ that we get from our clients,” says Stuart.“All of the inspiration our people feel, they get from the clientele. It’s quite difficult not to be affected by that within the context of the company. So you walk out wearing the BICO shirt and you get comments like, “If I’d known the BICO person was coming this way, I’d have ordered ice cream.” It feeds us in terms of understanding how critical we are as a brand to the hearts and minds and the psychology of our clients. Bottom line, you make people happy and that’s infectious. So when we do that it comes right back to us.” BARBADOS I CE CREAM COMPANY L IMI TED (B I CO)