Staff WriterJamaican candy company Sweetie will be adding Caribbean flavour to this year’s Halloween festivities. Through a partnership between Billodex and Sweetie, Jamaicans living in the United States will be able to offer Jamaican made candies to Trick or Treaters.
Americans are projected to spend USD$9 billion dollars this year on candy, costumes and decorations for Halloween, and more than one sixth of that figure will go directly towards satisfying the American sweet tooth. That’s a record level. With this new delivery service, Sweetie hopes to participate in the biggest candy consumption period in that market.
“There’s a real patriotism that is innate in every Jamaican, no matter where they live. Even though they may participate in the US customs and traditions, they still look for a way to inject ‘Jamaicanness’ in the American activities they do”, commented Patria-Kaye Aarons, CEO of Sweetie. Kids in costumes will for the first time be exposed to and no doubt enjoy authentic Caribbean fruit flavoured candies like guava, jackfruit and mango”.
The payment platform where customers can order their Sweetie products is a new business line for Billodex. “ We are Jamaica’s first self-service online ticketing platform” pointed out D’Andre Fraser, Billodex CEO. “We were approached by Patria-Kaye to solve the problem of allowing her to collect e-payments from overseas customers, and we saw where our website could be expanded to offer this service. We decided to partner with Sweetie to be our test case for being an online store. The feedback from both Sweetie and their customers has been good. Most noteworthy has been the response that buying is a great balance between simplicity and security”.
“Accepting payments from individual customers in the Diaspora has been a stumbling block to growing manufacturers like me. The existing collection options are US owned, too expensive, and settlement takes too long to be viable for businesses dependent on robust cash flow” added Aarons. “This partnership will open the doors to have players my size competing in the world’s fastest growing retail space: online”.
Once customers order their Sweetie Halloween box online, they will be delivered in five working days or less.
Sweetie’s Halloween boxes will cost customers USD$49, inclusive of shipping charges. Each will include 330 pieces of confectionery; a mixture of peanut brittle, paradise plums and fruit flavoured candies. “I’m particularly proud and excited to share the newly formulated Sweetie fruit flavours with customers. We dedicated the last two months to doing intense research and development work on our candies. We sought the help of American confectionery expert Judith Coolie, who has spend the last 40 years working in the world’s leading confectionery brands including Leaf Company and Hershey. Judy has turned our formulation upside down. We’ve benefited from her wealth of knowledge, and because of our work together, my team and I better understand the science behind ensuring flavours are bolder, and true to the fruit. With confidence, I can export our products knowing customers will experience the very best Caribbean tastes.”
Both Billiodex and Sweetie are First Angel Investment financed companies.
About Sweetie
Dedicated to satisfying the sweet tooth of Caribbean people and Caribbean people at heart, Sweetie products capture bold, authentic island flavours like mango and guava. Growing fast, Sweetie has distribution in 180 Jamaican retail locations and exports to the US, UK, and Caribbean. The company operates Jamaica’s only commercial candy factory.
About Billodex
Billodex is a ticketing platform that allows people to buy and sell tickets for events from their mobile. It also allows regular people to sell tickets for events on behalf of promoters from anywhere in the world! This allows consumers to use their own social network to sell tickets for events thus being able to collect a commission and creating jobs on a Global scale.
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