Latest update November 29th, 2024 1:00 AM
Private company to invest $5B in Guyana
…. Promises to create over 200 jobs within three years
CEO of Caricom Bottling Company Inc. (right) Dr. Joshua Safeek, handing over the agreement to representative of the Venezuelan company, Ernani Rodriguez, while Venezuela’s Ambassador to Guyana, Dario Morandy, looks on (second from left) along with head of Go – Invest, Geoff DaSilva (third from left).
Caricom Bottling Company Inc has so far invested $1.75 billion in Guyana for the complete installation of a state-of-the-art bottling plant before April of 2009.
The company plans to make a total of $5 billion in investment by installing two other plants over the next three years, which is projected to create approximately 250 jobs.
These plants are expected to be installed in Regions Three, Seven, and 10.
Yesterday, at the Roraima Inn, Bel Air Park, the company signed the first phase of the project with Mundial Maquinas C.A. of Venezuela, which is the entity that will install the plants.
Chief Executive Officer of Caricom Bottling Company Inc, Dr. Joshua Safeek, says that by February of next year the company will start churning out biscuits, which will be manufactured in Linden.
Region Three, he said, will see the producing of bottles, while the Region Six facility will deal with the bottling of rum, which is to be imported from Jamaica by December. This rum will be known as the ‘Vybz Cartel’ rum. The bottling of the rum, Dr. Safeek said, will be the second phase of the project.
The plant in Berbice will be closer to the Skeldon Sugar Factory, because of the easy access to power and raw materials.
“With this investment here, what we are looking at is the line of the bottling plant and also a line of where we would be having biscuits and crackers and multi cookies that we would be producing within this plant,” Dr. Safeek said.
He explained that, over the past few years, the company has been working very hard in trying to switch the course in line of their business into the manufacturing sector.
“This is the turning point in our business, where we would not only be a financer or an importer, but we will also become more involved in the manufacturing sector,” he added.
According to Dr. Safeek, the company is also looking at bottling juices, soft drinks, water and beer.
As it relates to the beer, he explained that the company is currently in negotiations with two brands of beer, but has not yet taken a decision as to which beer it would bottle, due to the high competition in the industry.
Meanwhile, head of Go-Invest, Geoff DaSilva, said that this investment should be an example for other investors, both local and foreign.
“In order to be successful in the Guyanese market, you come in, you set up, and then over time you expand and you diversify…we want to see more and more of the diversification of economic activities across Guyana,” DaSilva said.
He assured company officials that they could depend on the support of the Government and private sector. “This is what Guyana needs more of… these are challenging times, and many countries are looking at the glass as being half empty, but we are looking at the glass as being half full, and to build on that.”
Also present at the signing ceremony was Venezuela’s Ambassador to Guyana, Dario Morandy.
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