Case Study: The Protection of a Business' Intellectual Property

Background – About Marie Sharpe’s Fine Food Limited

Inorder to illustrate theactual impact of IPRs to thedevelopment of the company’s brand, this case study has been developed usingMarie Sharp’s Fine Foods Limited, a Belizean company.

Company Mission Statement: At Marie Sharp’s Fine Foods Ltd. we are committed to producing safe and wholesome food products. Our goals are continuously improved product quality, good presentation, customer satisfaction, greater profitability, and an awareness of the social well-being of our workers, farmers, community, and a commitment in protecting our environment. The company started quite by chance in the late 1970s when Mrs. Sharp, who owned a farm, Melinda’s Estates, responded to a request to plant habaneros for a local maker of pepper sauces. She grew over 1,000 pounds but the client only needed 50 pounds and so there was a substantial excess. Rather than letting these go to waste, Mrs. Sharp crushed the peppers and began to experiment making pepper sauces using a variety of local ingredients. She then distributed these to family and friends who provided their feedback on the various concoctions. Based on the responses which were particularly favourable to some of the recipes, she decided to take the plunge to begin manufacturing commercially and Marie Sharp’s Fine Foods was started in September 1981, although under a different trading name. As she already had a full-time job she had to work at night and with no manufacturing facilities, she would blend at home and have one employee bottle the product during the day. Since then the company has grown significantly becoming fully mechanised and now has 50 employees and 10 farmers. The 10 farmers are employed by Melinda’s Estates maintaining the farm where manufacturing inputs in addition to pepper, coconuts, tamarind, pineapples and carrots are grown. The company plays an important economic role in the economy beyond those persons it employs by developing a mutually advantageous relationship with local farmers. Ninety-two percent of all the company’s sales and costs incurred are from the manufacture of pepper sauces, jams and jellies makeup 6% of sales and seasonings and juices the remainder. Only 5% of the peppers required are available from Melinda’s Estates and the remaining 95% are sourced from 50

farmers in Southern Belize. The company provides loans/ advances to these who pay off the debt through the supply of peppers. This is an important source of financing as most farmers lease their farms and are unable to secure loans from banks. Other expenses are vegetables, bottles, labels, labour and the maintenance of machinery. Most of inputs are sourced locally but some vegetables are sourced from Mexico or Guatemala due to variabilities in supply. In the case of peppers, these are only sourced locally due to what is considered to be the uniqueness of flavour. However, this evaluation of the uniqueness is based on taste tests only as there has been no scientific testing. In terms of packaging material, most is sourced from outside of Belize. To maintain high quality and consistency of products but also to meet the food safety requirements locally and internationally, quality assurance procedures are emphasised, and the company is Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certified and also complies with the International Featured Standard (IFS) Food standard and plans to be IFS certified by the end of 2017. There is also a system of traceability that traces inputs from farm to table. Marie Sharp’s mainly manufactures pepper sauces (92% of sales), with relatively small product line of jams and jellies (6% of sales) and the remainder seasonings and juices. The company’s product line has grown from around 25 products at the start to over 300 products today. Marie Sharp’s is a major player in Belize, manufacturing 60 containers of pepper sauce annually of which 25 are sold locally and 35 are exported to India, Taiwan, Japan (where it is distributed through the McDonald’s chain), South Korea, Australia, Russia, UK, Germany, France, USA, Canada, Central America and Mexico. Japan is the leading export market commanding sales of 2 40- feet containers per month (each container contains 4000 cases) while for the USA 1-1/12 containers are shipped monthly. It is expected that the USA will become the leading export market overtaking Japan by 2018 due to the increasing sales through online platforms in particular Amazon.

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