Patria-Kaye’s journey up Sweetie highway.
We started the journey up Sweetie highway with candy-maker Patria-Kaye Aarons on Thursday. We continue today. Come with us.
I NEED AN ANGEL (INVESTOR)
SWEETIE CONFECTIONERY had taken off in spectacular fashion and was growing bigger and bigger each year – faster than Patria-Kaye’s pocket could handle. Every order was bigger than the last as she had gone from selling out of her car trunk to having Sweetie in 20 locations then landing a local distributor, which immediately catapulted them to 100 locations, followed by distribution deals in the US Virgin Islands, the UK, and the US in quick succession. “The business was growing and growing, and I was holding it back because I couldn’t afford to purchase enough raw materials to make the production runs or purchase enough packaging. I got to a place where I recognised that this business is bigger than me, and I needed help,” she recalled.
By this time, the banks that had initially refused to give her a business loan were now courting her attention, but she wasn’t interested as their interest rates were “ridiculous”. She also knew that she needed more than financial assistance as a newly minted CEO just trying to swim. “I’m a marketer, and I love to spend money. As a CEO, my objective has to be extremely different. Part of the success of Sweetie was going to depend on the support and expertise of people who have been there, who succeeded, who failed, who can caution me, so angel investing was attractive to me in that regard. And I also knew that in five years, I wanted to list on the Junior Stock Exchange, and there’s a kind of governance structure that’s required to be able to make that transition,” she explained.
Through the Branson Centre, PatriaKaye began to pitch Sweetie to potential angel investors. She first approached FirstAngelsJA last September, and the pitch was successful, but the signing process was delayed as she had recently been selected as one of eight Jamaican fellows in former US President Barack Obama’s Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) and had to leave the island for the six-week programme. “The Angels loved Sweetie and they got it. They got who we were. They got me. They got where I wanted the business to go. And I think it helped that I knew my business. I wasn’t moonlighting in Sweetie. Sweetie was my primary focus and had been for two years, so I knew what it needed to grow, and I was very clear about that,” she said.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Sweetie is the newest company on the FirstAngelsJA roster, having finally inked the deal in April last year, so there is still a lot of ground to cover, especially from the governance standpoint. The company does have a board of directors in place, which includes chairman Michael Ranglin, who formerly headed up the food arm of Grace-Kennedy; Ann-Marie Smith from the Scientific Research Council, who was instrumental in Sweetie’s research and development (R&D) process; advertising maven Kimala Bennett, managing director of The LAB; and Kareem Tomlinson from Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMMB), who handles the numbers – the latter two directors representing the angel investors.
The cash inflow has already made a huge difference as Paul Lue-Yen finally closed his doors permanently last November, so Sweetie needed a new production home. Also, the machinery at Miel was from the 1980s, and being old, it would often break down, leading to postponed orders. This was costing Sweetie both in terms of dollars and reputation. With the angel investment, Patria-Kaye has been able to get Sweetie its own factory space with brand-new machinery. “I’m able to do the hard candies in a way more efficient, First-World manner. I’m able to provide 500 per cent more jobs. I’m able to double my offerings because the machinery that I used before could only do hard candies, but now, I can put a stick in some of those hard candies and give you a lollipop. I now have the freedom to do research and development in my own space. It’s really given me the flexibility to grow exponentially, and the confidence to chase new markets and new customers,” she shared.