Shiver, the Bahamian sorbet and ice cream manufacturer is set to significantly boost its production capacity having now received its full automated plant.
According to Shiver’s co-founder Melissa Darville the plant which is valued at around $60,000 recently arrived from India.
“We’ve been waiting for this equipment for about a year. Right now we can do about 250 units per hour meaning that is small 4 ounce containers. With the plant we will be able to do 3,000 units per hour. We were lidding manually but this machine is fully automated.”
She added, “The only thing we have to do is package and so ultimately it reduces our labor. This is going to help us get straight to the market. That was one of the issues that we were having. We weren’t able to supply the demand.” The plant is expected to be up and running within a month or so.
“We already have out sorbet line out and we are developing our ice cream line,” said Darville. The company’s sorbet line currently includes mango, passion fruit, sour sop, tamarind and a tropical blend.
“We also have a guava and a blueberry that we are testing on the market right now. People seem to be leaning towards guava.”
The company has customized freezers at numerous retail outlets. “People are loving it We are tripling our projections for those freezers. It’s non-dairy product line and there’s the idea of promoting local fruits. A lot of parents are trying to get their kids off of dairy and it’s less than 100 calories per serving. People are really loving it. We’re getting great feedback. We’re encouraged. We have had excellent reception in the market. We are trying to keep our cost at a minimum so that the retailers can have a healthy mark up. That’s our aim. We don’t really want to be in the retail part of it . We just want to be in manufacturing. We’re already lower than the imported brands and we want to keep it that way,” Darville said.
English