Our experience with Trinidad &

Tobago
 Me. T Sanjay Wadhwani
Started at Wanis when I was a schoolboy
working on the weekends
 Introduction
Graduated from university and completed an
MBA
Working full time for the business for 35 years
 Company History
The company was established in 1964 by my
father
Began retailing ethnic groceries
As the business grew, the focussed shifted to
being a wholesaler
The company originally sold fresh produce
Into the late 1970s, this changed to include
processed foods
 About Wanis
Today, Wanis grown to be a $100m business
Over 125 employees
Distributing specialist food and drink
throughout the UK and Europe
Wanis currently operates a cash and carry and
a distribution centre
Both divisions are expanding quickly
About Wanis
 Introduction About Wanis
We were awarded the honour of UK Futures
1000 by Deloitte
 The supermarket chains
We deliver to every major wholesale, retailer
and supermarket. Even prisons!
 Our trucks
Fleet of 10 trucks, 3 vans plus a haulage company
 Wanis
Team of 10 sales representatives
Orders fulfilled within 72 hours
 Who do we represent?
Some great brands:
Solo Beverages
Chief Brand products
ABI Snacks
Carib Breweries
KC Confectionery

We enjoy working with all of you but..

But sometimes it can be challenging!!
The things I have to do for my company!!
 Challenging!
-
 Trinidad and Tobago companies are the best
to deal with in the Caribbean.

But there is still plenty of room for improvement

What issues do we face at the
moment?
 Barcodes
90% of stores sell by scanning barcodes
Products and outer cases need barcodes on them
Barcodes need to be large and legible
 Barcodes
Minimum dimensions for inner barcodes:
16mm high by 25mm wide
Minimum dimensions for outer barcodes:
35mm high by 85mm wide
An ideal label size is around 100mm x 76mm
 Barcodes
An example of an ideal outer barcode
 Barcodes
Barcodes need to be printed on white outer
cases, not brown
 Barcodes
Barcodes need to visible. Dont print on the
bottom of the box
 Expiration Dates
Legal requirement
Must be in the format of Month/Year
Visible on the outer case and on the retail unit
We need the maximum shelf life.
We lose around 6 weeks due to transit and
customs clearance
Expiration Dates
 Expiration Dates
A good example of expiration dates:
 Outer case packaging
Outer casing makes a huge difference
Plain brown boxes do not help to sell a
product
Try to avoid it at all costs
When sending small packs, please use a clear
film to keep the product visible
Outer case packaging
 Pack Size
Smaller packs such as 6s or 8s can help boost
sales
The Caribbean market is different to the
European
Supermarkets prefer small pack sizes and shelf
ready packaging
 Technical -Nutritional Information
In the UK nutritional information is per 100g
or 100ml, not by serving/portion size
It is a legal requirement
Instead of a special label, make 1 label
showing both
 Technical -Nutritional Information
A good example showing both:
 Technical Naughty Ingredients
Certain ingredients are banned in the UK.
Others may need a declaration
E numbers
For example, E110 or Sunset Yellow would
require this warning:
May have an adverse effect on activity and
attention in children
 Declaration for E Ingredients
An example:
 Technical - Storage Instructions
For example: Once opened, please use within
2 weeks. Store in a cool, dry place
 Shout it out.
Pricing needs to be competitive compared to
other exporters from around the world
Its a global market place now.
Shout out Made in the Caribbean
Be proud of this fact, its a great selling point.
Dont be in a rush to look like an identical
western product.
 Look at what the Jamaicans do
Shout
 Marketing
Make people remember the brands
Share you marketing material with your
overseas distributors.
 Stock Reliability
People in expect their products to be
available all the time
Supermarkets do not tolerate out of stock
items
If a customers brand is out of stock, they will
likely switch to another brand, which becomes
hard to switch back.
 Documentation + Trademarks
Documentation is vital and needs to be on
time.
Sometimes we receive the bill of lading or
EUR1 form late.
Suppliers need to be organised.
Trademarks
Please register your brands in the countries
you deal in before someone else does!!!
Documentation
 Success
We do have some companies making good
efforts to get things right
KC Confectionary got a listing in Tesco, the UK
largest supermarket chain. Tesco insisted on
shelf ready packaging & smaller cases. KC met
this.
Customers love it and keep asking us for more
 & even more success
Carib Lager also got listed and on the back of
that, so was Shandy Carib.
Carib was given 8 weeks to get stock into
Tesco and it met this challenge.
Chief Brand products now met all EU labelling
regulations.
Its exports have grown by over 100% in 5
years.
 Want we want
Trinidad is the most forward thinking of all
Caribbean countries
But we want more!
We want to be World Class..
 just like Keshorn Walcott and the Trinidadian
Olympics Mens Relay teams.
Champions
Thank You