Sun Mark Ltd, an English food distribution company, is looking to double its business in T&T from exhibiting at the Trade and Investment Convention (TIC) for the second consecutive year. Last year, the company sold £1 million of foods and products. Sun Mark chairman, Dr Rami Ranger, who's originally from Chandigarh, India, said the company he started 15 years ago found three distributors in T&T for its 80 products. Those products include powdered fruit juices, fruit juices, cereal, vegetable drinks, biscuits, baked beans, salad dressing, energy drinks, non-alcoholic ginger drinks, air-fresheners, kitchen towels.
"We came here last year for the first time because we represent very high quality product, competitively priced.
"We were well received and our business has grown from strength to strength. "We are now in St Vincent, Barbados, T&T, Dominica, St Maarten, so our business is growing in the Caribbean. "When we came to Trinidad, we were able to show the full range of products, were able to communicate with the distributor and they came and saw customers enjoying the product in the booth. "(AS) Bryden & Sons (Trinidad) Ltd distributes our non-alcoholic celebration drinks, ginger beer and biscuits. "Sweet Surprises Ltd is marketing our energy drink. D&B markets our kitchen items and fruit juices. It's very difficult to have one distributor to market 80 products," Ranger said, in an interview at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad hotel, last week.
"Everybody has their own strength. Some distributors have a strength marketing toiletries. Some distributors have a strength marketing drinks," he said. "The result is our business is growing." Ranger, 64, a medium-height, white-haired, soft-spoken man, said his expectation for Sun Mark's first presence at TIC in 2010 was "zero." "I thought I would at least have a holiday, at least I'd have some good weather. I was surprised when I came first time.
Food vs luxuries
"My expectations were surpassed, first with the venue, the arrangement, the facility. "I must commend the Government of T&T for giving this wonderful opportunity for people to exhibit their products, their services. It is such a fantastic environment. It is just so easy for people to come to Trinidad. You link up," Ranger said. He said Sun Mark has been successful, even in a recession, because people buy food when they can't afford such luxury items as new cars, yachts or televisions. "I'm doing okay in recession."
Ranger said he worked for multinational food companies which trained him to market products and build brands.
"Brands are trust. People walk into a supermarket and pick up the brands they trust. That is what I learned. A good quality product and excellence endure after everything else is forgotten." He said people are reluctant to try a newly-launched product in a market, but once they try it, there's a snowball effect: they tell their friends, who tell theirs. He said Sun Mark has sampled its products to 2,000 people who visited this year's TIC. In return for the anticipated growth in sales, Ranger said he plans to spend at least £20,000 a year on a multi-media advertising campaign in Trinidad, from billboards to radio.
He spoke proudly of Sun Mark having triply won the Queen's Award for Enterprise (International Trade) from 2009-2011.
"The award means a lot. It means you are best in Britain. You have competed with the best companies to show sustainable growth. It means you are marketing a good quality product. "We are not marketing products for the lower end of the market, but upper-class and up, people who appreciate taste and quality," Ranger said. Sun Mark currently exports 6,000 containers annually to 94 countries, earning £120 million in revenue.
