The seeds of Teresa’s Pastries were planted in the early 2010s when Roxono Robinson, who knew nothing about pastry making, started working at a mixed pastry shop. Under the guidance of the shop’s owner, he learned the craft from scratch. More importantly, he discovered he had a passion.
“I get to learn it and I get to like it,” he recalled. “And I told myself that I would like to open my own pastry and just work for myself.”
A few years later, in 2016, fate introduced him to Theresa Robinson. What began as a personal relationship quickly blossomed into a business partnership rooted in trust and mutual support. “I told her I wanted to start my own business,” Roxono said. “She told me I could leave work and she would support me until it got off the ground.”
And she did.
Baking up a Business
On his birthday, sometime between 2017 and 2018, Roxono took the leap. He left his full-time job and officially started Teresa’s Pastries. At first, it was tough. With only a baking sheet, a home oven, and a hand mixer, he hit the road, tagging along with a friend to sell pastries to whomever would buy.
“In the beginning, I was making just J$2,000 to J$3,000 a week,” he said. “It was nothing like my pay cheque from my 9 to 5. But I had my wife’s support, and I believed we could build something.”
Today, that faith has paid off. From a single baking sheet to nearly 20 baking trays, from a regular oven to an industrial one, and from a hand mixer to a commercial-grade mixer, Teresa’s Pastries has grown into a small business with big heart.
While they don’t yet have a full factory, they now operate out of a dedicated production space, and have dreams of expanding into a full-scale pastry factory in the future. At the core of it all is a deep love for traditional Jamaican pastries that taste like home.
“When people eat it, they say, ‘This reminds me of my mother, or my grandmother, when I used to go to the country,’” Roxono said with a smile. “That gives me joy you know.”
With the tagline, ‘Greatness in Every Bite’, Teresa Pastries stock Jamaican baked goods from grater cakes to coconut drops.
A ‘Fambili’ Legacy
Balancing each other, Roxono handles production, deliveries, and customer engagement, while Theresa manages finances, maintains the website, and keeps the business organised. And like a good old Toto, their business rises not just because of good ingredients, but because of the love and effort that goes into it.
“Family means a lot,” Roxono said. “If you don’t have family, you don’t have that support. When the day is hard, family helps you see the light.”
Family-owned businesses constitute a significant percentage of Jamaica’s Micro, Small and Medium-sized (MSME) sector, accounting for upwards of 70% of employment and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contributions. These businesses are vehicles for intergenerational wealth, social mobility, and community.
Through its retail brand, Things Jamaican™, the Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC) is providing market access for more than 400 local producers of authentic Jamaican products, many of which are family-owned.
As such, Things Jamaican™ is pushing 23 brands under its ‘Fambili’ Legacy campaign under the theme ‘From yaad bonds, to yaad brands’. Among the featured brands, Teresa’s Pastries is available at all Things Jamaican™ locations — Devon House, Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA), and JBDC’s Corporate Office.
“People saw our pastries through JBDC and started placing orders,” Roxono said. “It really helped.”
As for the future of Teresa’s Pastries, the couple’s dream is to open a factory where they can produce at a larger scale and keep the legacy of Jamaican traditions alive.
Learn more about the ‘Fambili’ Legacy promotion at www.thingsjamaicanshopping.com or start your entrepreneurial journey From Concept to Market at www.jbdc.net.
