Indra Mekdeci’s exotic eatables finding their way on the local market
Throwing a spotlight on emerging local business ventures has become one of the editorial preoccupations of the Stabroek Business. The practice emerged out of the newspaper’s focus on providing, where it can, a measure of marketing impetus for small business ventures that are yet to arrive at a point where the sustained marketing of their enterprises becomes affordable. Sometimes too we happen upon creative entrepreneurial initiatives which, arising out of their novelty and growth potential, make their own unique cases for public attention.
Indra Mekdeci’s Reminiscence falls into the latter category and when, earlier this week, we returned to her First Street, Subryanville home after having featured her enterprise at its inception, we were not surprised to find that her aesthetically pleasing edible offerings that include an array of creatively presented fruit and confectionary delights had, since the establishment of the enterprise in December 2012, made marked strides, finding its way into niches that include high-end public functions.
It had always seemed that the potential was there. When we had spoken with Mekdeci in her kitchen just before Christmas in 2012 she had been exploring ideas for the presentation of her offerings to a brand new market. Afterwards, we had seen those offerings adorn the dinner tables at the Pegasus Hotel during the customary seasonal party thrown by Digicel. That evening, it took a while for the assembled guests to stop admiring (and eventually eat) the assortment of decorative confectionary including chocolate dipped fruit, cake pops and truffles.
Over time, the Reminiscence brand has popped up at both public and private functions, offering pleasing distractions for those lucky enough to encounter what are as much creative displays as they are edible offerings. The handmade creations appear far too delicate to be destined to simply disappear into stomachs in a few enjoyable gulps; and yet, that is just what they do.
The original idea may have been borrowed from a cousin in London with a similar creative passion but over time Mekdeci’s vision has transformed Reminiscence’s creations into something unique. We discovered when we met again with Mekdeci earlier this week that her skills, as much as her ingenuity and her confidence appears to have been significantly enhanced. Over time, she has embraced an impressive collection of inputs for her creations, ranging from tropical fruit and savannah lettuce to an assortment of imported chocolates.
These days, as it was when we first met her, Mekdeci exudes a casualness in her kitchen, evidently enjoying her status as a skilled craftswoman. She chats nonchalantly as she works, neither pursuit seeming to detract from the effect of the other.
There are advantages to business enterprises that remain manageable. In Mekdeci’s case the size of Reminiscence appears to be a function largely of the highly specialized, highly skilled nature of what she does. For more reasons than one it might probably be impracticable to recruit and train someone as an assistant.
Her preoccupation, simultaneously, with customer retention and market expansion challenges both her energy and her creativity and arguably, her most significant accomplishment up until now has been her ability to put her creative talents to work to offer the kind of range and variety that sustains customer interest. Pleasing too, she says, has been the steady growth in her overseas market, a niche which she says enables her to measure her own creations against foreign offerings which are customarily presumed to be superior. Mekdeci estimates that since Reminiscence was created her overseas market has grown by around 25 per cent.
Mekdeci says that at its inception Reminiscence had originally targeted the presumably more lucrative overseas market. Accordingly, much of the earlier patronage came from external buyers who purchased gift items for friends and relatives in Guyana. Over time, however, the local market has gathered a momentum of its own and Reminiscence’s creations have captured much of the higher-end, ‘show off’ market that has emerged in Guyana.
Creations that utilise local fruit have grown in popularity among local customers though Mekdeci concedes that her sweet-toothed local clientele still have a taste for some imports. Her Appreciate Baskets – which are offered in three sizes – include the coveted chocolate-covered strawberry and grapes. She says she cannot dictate what her customers want, but just provide the quality products they desire.
A stint in television in her earlier life has created an appreciation of the power of the media – both traditional electronic media and contemporary social media - to market her products. She says her website is her “store front” from where potential customers would see what she offers.
Preparing orders, she says, can be painstaking. Since much of her creations are done with fresh fruit she frequently requires a minimum of four hours to respond to a request. Recently, Mekdeci partnered with Smart Cart, a local delivery company to drop off her orders to customers in locations as far as New Amsterdam, Parika, Linden and Georgetown and its environs. Here in Georgetown, she says, the advent of parking meters could see delivery costs increase in some downtown areas.
She has, she says, looked forward to Mothers’ Day every year. They are by far her best trading days and apart from her customary fruit baskets she delivers up to 60 floral arrangements on that day. Valentine Day and Fathers’ Day also attract higher levels of patronage and of course “there is always Christmas.”