Jamaican start-up partners with Viomark to distribute hand sanitiser products

LOCAL start-up chemical manufacturer Uelen Chemicals has partnered with Jamaican distribution company Viomark Trading to distribute locally its retail brands of hand sanitiser products.

The deal will see Viomark take on retail distribution of Uelen’s flagship “Glan” range of products, which include hand sanitiser gel, hand sanitiser spray and rubbing alcohol.

Viomark Trading, which currently distributes a range of products for a number of international brands, including Libman, which is the second highest selling producer of cleaning tools in the United States.

Viomark, which is based in New Kingston, currently distributes its products in the major supermarkets in the country. Uelen manufactures its products in Kingston.

The distribution deal was signed by co-founder of Uelen Chemicals, Rajiv Bakshi, and director of Viomark Vivion Scully. In his remarks at the signing ceremony, Bakshi explained that the distribution deal offers his company, the opportunity to grow its retail presence and expand its product range in Jamaica.

According to Bakshi, “We set out at the start of 2021 with outsourcing of our retail distribution as one of the key pillars in our strategy. This allows us to focus on creating new products, continue our expansion into the hospitality sector and deliver on our contract manufacturing obligations.”

Continuing, Bakshi pointed out, “this has been a hard time for everybody in Jamaica. We could have imported products to help meet the demand of the market, but we decided we wanted to create a local product of international standard and create employment at a time when people were losing their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Speaking on behalf of Viomark, Scully was excited that his company is partnering with Uelen Chemicals.”we see this as an important partnership and believe the experience in the retail space which we bring along with our footprint will help bring the Glan range of products to many new consumers,” Scully posited in his brief remarks.

Also sharing the occasion was seasoned financial advisor Mark Croskery of Croskery Capital which arranged the transaction between the parties and assisted with advisory, corporate strategy, and co-ordination.