CB, Churches to teach chicken vendors business development
Published:Sunday | October 17, 2010 | 12:00 AM
A local poultry company has partnered with a credit union lender to teach business skills to 'pan chicken' vendors, whose fare has been on offer from roadside stalls for decades, but few of whom have structured operations.
The two-day seminar will be offered to 37 pan chicken vendors. It will focus on how to position their business for growth.
Caribbean Broilers Group and Churches Co-operative, the island's second largest credit union, signed an agreement in Kingston last Friday.
The arrangement is an extension of a programme that Caribbean Broilers initiated, which has already provided guidance to the vendors on proper sanitation and food handling, said the company's brand manager, Lauri-Ann Ainsworth.
"Come 2011 we want this seminar to be part of the recruitment process, so we are not only equipping them with the tools that they need to cook, we are also equipping them with the knowledge. We are hoping that this will be an ongoing process," said Ainsworth.
Basil Naar, general manager of Churches Co-operative, said the vendors would be offered training in management at the sessions scheduled for October 27 and November 10.
"We have found out over the years that many small entrepreneurs fail because nobody taught them how to save, how to manage money. Most of them end up in the same trap that most entrepreneurs end up in: confusing profit and cash flow," he said.
"We want to encourage them and show them how you can manage a business, no matter how small it is."
Naar said the pan chicken vendors would be encouraged to save to increase their net worth, and would have access to the credit union's 32 products and services.
Caribbean Broilers also announced last Friday that the five-year-old Ultimate Pan Chicken Championship cook-off is scheduled for November 28 in New Kingston.
The CB Group is a privately held company and a subsidiary of the National Continental Corporation. CB's main business is poultry and pork production. It is also involved in the supply chain from feed milling, egg and pig semen through to the meat processing, distribution, and marketing.