‘Forde’s Fruitcicle’ is fruit to the core

Mar 02, 2025 Features / Columnists, News, Waterfalls Magazine, Young entrepreneurs

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“I encourage entrepreneurs it might look a little tough but stay with it. It is worth fighting for; stay committed because greatness is coming out. And somebody is relying on your product for their livelihood.”

By Allyiah Allicock

Kaieteur News- If you are a lover of the wide variety of fruits and vegetables being produced locally and you prefer to have your fruit juices or shakes made with no artificial flavours or preservatives, then you ought to check out what ‘Forde’s Fruitcicle’ has in store for you.

Forde’s Fruitcicle which started a few years ago is owned and operated by Zoe Grenville-Forde, a pharmacist by profession.

This passionate entrepreneur and mother of three beautiful girls in an exclusive interview with The Waterfalls revealed that Forde’s Fruitcicle started out as a mere love of blending and mixing of local fruits for juices.

She revealed that her husband had loved to blend his local fruits and as a result, she would make icicle and would sell on the weekend. Forde said they decided to turn it into a mini business at the time to offset some of their expenses.

Eventually as years went by, she shared that they grew to love it and that they decided that the profit from that business, “will cover the expenses of our children.”

Now essentially a single parent Forde explained that in 2022 she made the decision to give up her full time job as a pharmacist, since at the time she had so much on her plate and she did not want the business to be shut down.

“So in 2022 I started working on it in a major way, like I said the whole motivation here was that the business must grow because the business has an assignment and the assignment was to take care of our children. So, you know as a mother I stayed with it and for that I must say over the years I have grown to love it,” she related.

Giving all credit to God, the businesswoman added, “the business started out of love but over the years I have grown to love it even more and I believe that the lord has gifted me, I have to give glory to God, this doesn’t have anything to do with me even when we came out with different flavours and so on, the wisdom to even come up with so much things as exotic as awara, creamy sapodilla, and psydium the lord has been helping.”

For those now learning of this venture, Forde’s Fruiticicle offers a unique frozen fruit snack made with real locally produced fruits.

“So our flagship is the Forde’s Fruiticicle in its regular form, that is the fruit in their awesomeness, so people say icicle but we had done so much work on it that we have called it and branded it a fruitcicle because it is real fruit, no artificial flavour, no artificial colour, no artificial preservatives, some as common as cherry to as uncommon as awara, gooseberry whatever you consider uncommon or exotic.”

She continued, “The focus is local fruits and so that is what we do, and then we introduced moving from there we introduce a creamy form, the creamy fruiticile these are the fruits beautifully intertwined with milk so our big seller is the creamy banana and then we have a whole other variety of flavours. Then overtime we introduced juices and shakes that hit a different market, and in a similar way, hit the spot in people’s stomachs.”

Complementing these fruits, the woman said the blend also include a variety of vegetables such as ginger, carrots, and pumpkin. According to Forde, whatever customers envision they would make it on demand once it is available at the time. The business also offers chopped vegetables, “so from the package to the pot”, Forde stated.

Having started off since 2014, the entrepreneur said that support for her business has been good and growing over the years. There are customers’ feedback as well as family support in having the order ready.

Expressing how extremely grateful she is for the support; Forde mentioned that from time to time there has been challenges she faced. Recalling some of these, importantly she said one has to do will balancing her family and the business.

She said being a mother has been the most important job of it all hence making the decision to give up her job has given her time to care for her kids. The time also allows her to balance between family time and the business.

Other challenges she said are accessing equipment to make the products, while another has to do with sourcing fruits which sometimes do not sell on the market since they are not in season. Having expanded the line of fruits to choose from, Forde said now there is never a case where she is out of Fruiticicle, shakes or juices.

While facing these many challenges, Forde said her light is never dimmed since she puts all her trust in God who paves the way forward.

With her products already neatly packaged, you should be aware that the fruiticicle is being sold at Andrew’s Supermarket on Robb Street, while the juices are available at the New Guyana School.

Already winning the taste buds of the public, the proud owner said her goal is to see Forde’s Fruiticile grow further and for it to become a house whole name in Guyana.

She is of the view that young entrepreneurs play a big role in society, since entrepreneurship creates more job opportunities for others, and it helps the economy to grow.

It is in this light, Forde said, “I encourage entrepreneurs, it might look a little tough but stay with it. It is worth fighting for, stay committed because greatness is coming and somebody is relying on your product for their livelihood.”

Asked what she thinks can be done to boost small businesses, she said for there to be more support and importantly support from relatives. “Building any business is not a solo matter, it is about family and it is about a support network,” she disclosed.

For those interested in placing an order from ‘Forde’s Fruiticicle’ you can do so via the number (592) 645-7997, or via their Facebook of Tik Tok pages.

(‘Forde’s Fruitcicle’ is fruit to the core)

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