Bico’s back! New state-of-the-art plant in operation

by Marlon Madden

After over a decade of being produced in another country, the popular BICO brand will once again be made in Barbados.

Barbados TODAY has learned that manufacturing of BICO ice cream resumed in Bridgetown at the company’s new state-of-the-art, solar-powered Harbour Road, St Michael facility on Saturday, October 3, 2020.

The ice cream manufacturing plant, which cost in excess of $3 million, currently employs ten people.

Confirming the development today, Executive Director of BICO Ltd Edwin Thirlwell told Barbados TODAY he was pleased with the quality of the first batch
of ice cream produced over the past week.

He said the new, young staff members have been trained and they were settling in “nicely”, adding that “they are gathering up steam and momentum”.

“We are just building up stocks. Once we start producing, we won’t stop. We will just carry on and then we will be releasing the products in the local market and as we go forward, we will only be selling products made in Barbados,” said an elated Thirlwell.

He said the return of the ice cream manufacturing to Barbados should result in a decline in the importation of the product from outside the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

“For the country it ought to mean that there is really no excuse for bringing ice cream in from outside CARICOM. There is enough in the region to supply our needs. And why would we want to use hard currency to bring in ice cream from overseas at a time when we can least do with using it for that?” he said.

Thirlwell told Barbados TODAY that over time residents should look forward to some new products. However, he opted not to give away too much at this point.

“We have ice cream in all sizes and there are some new products that we have never made before . . . So we have some really interesting products that hopefully will be attractive for the market in Barbados,” he said.

In addition, he gave the assurance that BICO products would remain affordable and in some cases prices could be lowered given that the company was now saving on freight costs.

“So the things we always make will remain the same price until we see what’s what. Except anything new we will look and see whether we can hit a better price point.

“We are not expecting anything to be more than; we are expecting it to be less than,” said Thirlwell, who pointed out that it depended heavily on operating costs.

“We are still working on the costing and we are expecting that we ought to be able to shave a little off the price. But don’t forget that in other places labour is cheaper than
in Barbados. The raw materials all cost the same and the packaging.

“We are hoping that we can perhaps offer better deals. We will not know what the actual savings are until everything settles and we see what in practice it costs to make with our early runs in Barbados,” he explained.

In addition to new ice cream products, BICO is expected to start manufacturing ice lollies (ice pops).

However, Thirlwell explained that this would require the commissioning of another plant, which he said was expected to be in place by the end of the year.

“We are expecting again a state-of-the-art ice lolly plant to arrive before Christmas and then we will start to make stick products here. The fact is, it is too much confusion trying to commission an ice cream plant and a new ice lolly plant [at the same time],” he said.

It was back in August 2009 that the original BICO factory was destroyed by fire, forcing the company to outsource production in Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba, Canada and the Dominican Republic.

Later, there was a shift to only one source of supply – Suriname.

The opening of the new factory comes just a week after the Surinamese dollar was devalued by close to 90 per cent against the US dollar. This meant that there would have likely been an increase in the ice cream being produced there for BICO.

Thirlwell told Barbados TODAY he already has his sights set on regrowing BICO’s export market share.

“Of course, once we get the Barbados market supplied, we will be looking to recover our regional export market because we used to export to everybody,” he said.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb