Versatile visionary, John Caesar, is a ‘Special Person’

Nov 29, 2020 News

“My greatest assets are my children; I could not have come this far without them, because this line of business is very tedious; there is always so much to do.”

By Enid Joaquin

John Caesar is a ‘Special Person’

A business minded character.

Chanzar’s products ready for consumption.

Kaieteur News – By the age of 80, most people would have already called it a day – wrapped up whatever businesses they have and retired to the rocking chair.
But not John Caesar. With eyes sparkling with excitement, Caesar recently spoke of his plans to expand Chanzar Enterprise, a family-oriented business that was birthed in his kitchen, nurtured in our local bauxite company and propagated by the people of Linden. The business has been in existence for over 40 years.
John Caesar grew up surrounded by entrepreneurship, as his father operated a vessel/launch known as the ‘Sea Venture,’ which transported lumber to Linden from communities in the Lower Demerara River.
The family also operated a grocery shop in the old Wismar Market.
Caesar worked alongside his father in both businesses, so it is not at all surprising that today he is the proud proprietor of Linden’s oldest and most successful manufacturing enterprise.
He credits the support of his children for the longevity of the business.
“My greatest assets are my children, I could not have come this far without them, because this line of business is very tedious; there is always so much to do,” said Caesar.
Although he has had no formal training in food processing, two of his children, Caroline and June, did courses through Empretec, on agro-processing. Their combined knowledge and skills have added immeasurably to their father’s success, as a manufacturer.

PERSEVERANCE

Staffers busy preparing some Chanzar products.

Caesar confided that he started his manufacturing business at a time when any kind of food/agro processing was forbidden in the Town of Linden, given the heavy bauxite dust pollution.
“In those days there were strict laws that said any kind of food manufacturing business should be done at least 25 miles away from the town itself. But that didn’t make sense; they were sending you in the jungle where there was no electricity, so how were you going to do manufacturing without electricity?”
He would turn a deaf ear to this admonition and persevered despite the challenges.
“I started this business during a period of austerity in this country; things were difficult, so I came up with the idea of producing porridge stuff, tea, chocolate and black pepper.”
As time went by, more products were added.
Caesar boasts of his factory’s ability to manufacture over 40 products these days.
All the raw materials are purchased from farmers in and around Linden, and to a lesser extent from farmers in the Essequibo area.
His products have been featured at many trade fairs across the country.
Caesar was born at Leonora, West Coast Demerara. He received his formal education at the Agricola Anglican School on the East Bank Demerara.
He later moved to Linden with his parents.
There he met and married the late Christina Pauline David in 1968. The union produced five children.

EARLY DAYS
During a recent interview, Caesar reminisced on the early days, helping his mother and grandmother grind various spices for the family pot.
Our ‘Special Person’ would later put that knowledge of processing spices to good use.
He confessed that Chanzar Enterprise was birthed out of the need to help feed his family following the restrictions on imports of several food items by the government of the day.
For him, it was a blessing in disguise, as he was forced to think of ways to alleviate the subsequent hardships on his own family, as well as others.
So it was that he started producing various porridge items using eddoes, plantains and corn.
He would sell his hand-milled products throughout his neighbourhood, riding around on his bicycle while targeting homes with diapers on the line.
“In those days people used to wash the baby diapers and hang them on the (clothes) line to dry. They didn’t have Pampers. So I would look for the houses with diapers on the lines and introduce the porridge stuff to the housewives.”
Before long, it was the housewives who were “looking out” for the man on the bicycle selling corn meal, eddoes and plantain flour.
The little business started to grow, and the demand was getting so great that Caesar had to devise ways of keeping his customers satisfied.
“I was working with the bauxite company at the time, so the business was actually to supplement my income. However, as the demand got greater, I had to work out strategies to keep up,” said Caesar.
“I was working on the railroad, so when the trains went to Ituni, I had a lot of time on my hands. I used to lie down and think about what I could do, and just like that I got the idea that I could use all that free time to push the business.”
Caesar said, too, that he started taking a box with the accoutrements of his trade to work, and during the slack periods, would grind black pepper and other things, and then at lunchtime take the items to sell in and around the markets at Mackenzie.

‘HAND WASH HAND’
He confessed that he also got a few of his co-workers to help him grind some of the spices.
“Dem boys used to be glad because I used to buy food for dem. I would leave dem grinding whether black pepper or corn or whatever and I would go down the road and sell and bring back food for dem so was a hand wash hand thing.”
Later, he started making Cerex using soya beans and corn flour.
“I used to bake the soya beans and grind it and take it to the bauxite plant to dry,” he recalled.
He pointed out that he discontinued this practice, after a report was made to a Senior Executive of the company by the name of Dunstan Barrow, who subsequently offered to pay somebody to build a Solar dryer for him.
However, Caesar said that he did not take up the offer, as he did not have land space to accommodate the equipment. He opted instead to create his own drying system using plastic and sunlight.
“The idea came to me that I could make a plastic roof dryer using a wooden frame with the plastic roof. I saw this in Africa. I installed it on the shop roof and it worked excellent,” he related.
It was unique because it created a vacuum of heat. “The plastic traps the heat, and draws out the water,” explained Caesar. He still utilizes the same method of drying.

LONG WAY
Caesar has come a long way from the days of bicycle hawking.
He has added dozens of products to his “Logi” brand, which could be found in supermarkets and other businesses all across Linden, the East Coast and Georgetown.
There have also been significant improvements in packaging, with many of the products being offered in shake bottles and professionally designed packets.
His main concern these days is his need to acquire a plot of land to establish a bigger factory.
“We need more space right now because the demand for our products is there, so we have to build capacity to increase production,” he confided.
For blazing the trail in food processing and persevering in this field of endeavour despite the odds, we at Kaieteur News take this opportunity to bestow on John Caesar the title of ‘Special Person.’