Anthony Reid had one goal that evening: to get back into his fiancée’s good books after an argument. Hoping a home-cooked meal would smooth things over, he headed to the kitchen. Reid laughs when he admits he isn’t much of a cook. But that evening, he was willing to step outside his comfort zone.
“This came about actually out of having a dispute with my wife at the time. I was trying to make up. Being that they know I’m not a kitchen-type person and she was the one who always did the cooking, I just wanted to do something to impress her,” Reid recalled.
Fried chicken was on the menu, but Reid wanted to add something different. So, he began experimenting with a dipping sauce. The result surprised even him.
“She loved it. At the time, she thought it should be a little spicier, so I made it a little spicier for her.”
Encouraged by her reaction, Reid let other family members taste the sauce. They all had the same advice: bottle it and sell it.
He didn’t.
Instead, the recipe remained in his kitchen for almost a decade.
“I wasn’t thinking about doing the sauce as a business. I was thinking about opening a restaurant, and I wanted the sauce to be the signature sauce for the restaurant.”
Although he wasn’t ready to build a sauce business, Reid never stopped thinking like an entrepreneur. Having previously operated a juice company and later launched a clothing brand, his sights were firmly set on opening an upscale restaurant in Portmore, where the sauce would become its signature offering.
That plan changed in 2024.
While discussing the restaurant concept with a friend, Reid once again found himself talking enthusiastically about the sauce.
“He came to me and said, ‘Why do you keep talking about opening a restaurant with the sauce? Why don’t you just turn the sauce into a business?'”
The question forced Reid to look at the recipe differently. For the first time, he began to consider the possibility that the sauce itself could be the business.
There was just one problem. He knew how to make a great sauce. What he didn’t know was how to build a food business.
From Kitchen to Market
Having decided to turn his homemade recipe into a business, Reid quickly discovered that creating a great sauce was only half the battle.
His first stop was the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO), where he sought to protect the name Chrishaunas…a blend of the names of his daughters, Christina and Shania.
“The name of the product is the Sweet and Spicy Cheese Sauce. The company itself is Chrishaunas. I came up with the name by putting both my daughters’ names together. My oldest daughter is Christina, who is the co-founder of Chrishaunas, and my second daughter’s name is Shania.”
Protecting the brand was only the beginning.
“Everybody at JIPO was telling me, ‘You need to take this to JAMPRO. You need to export it.’ So, I went to JAMPRO and from there they told me I needed to get to JBDC.”
That referral marked the beginning of Reid’s journey with the Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC). Although confident in his recipe, Reid admits he knew very little about the process of commercialising a food product.
“Once I got to JBDC, I found out what I had to do to get the product on the shelf. I had to go through the Bureau of Standards. I’m still learning the process of the food business as I go along.”
Working alongside JBDC’s Agro-Industry Cluster Supervisor, Treana Lindo and Business Development Officer Romaine Butler, Reid learnt that taking a product from the kitchen to supermarket shelves required much more than a great-tasting recipe.
From improving the sauce’s shelf life and refining the formulation, Chrishauna’s was in full production mode inside the JBDC’s Agro-processing Incubator where he was able to meet food safety standards.
One of the biggest hurdles was improving the product’s shelf life.
“When I got to JBDC, Treana was the one who told me about preservatives and all these other things because we had a shelf-life issue. We couldn’t solve the issue for some reason, and Treana was the one who solved it.”
The JBDC’s Visual Communication’s Team was able to help redesign the package and label in line with the BSJ’s requirements.
He laughed before adding, “If the company should become a multi-billion-dollar company one day, I have to compensate Treana because she went the mile and beyond.”
As the business evolved, JBDC’s support extended beyond product development to helping Reid reach new markets. Through the agency’s Things Jamaican retail stores, which promote authentic Jamaican-made products, and its role in the annual Christmas in July trade show, which connects local manufacturers with corporate buyers, retailers and the tourism industry, Reid gained valuable opportunities to put Chrishaunas in front of customers and buyers who may never have discovered the brand otherwise.
“Treana was the one who recommended the Things Jamaican stores. She was the one who told me about Christmas in July. Ever since I met Treana, not only did she help with formalisation, but the suggestions she made for me and the company have gone beyond her duty.”
Food Awards Glory…
Today, Chrishaunas’ Sweet and Spicy Cheese Sauce is stocked in supermarkets across Jamaica and is attracting interest from overseas buyers. Less than a year after entering the market, the business was also nominated in the Jamaica Observer Table Talk Food Awards for Best (New) Local Product.
For Reid, the nomination was validation that he was on the right path.
“To me, I already felt like I won because the product had only been on the market for about a year. The reception that we’re getting from customers… it’s overwhelming.”
Ironically, the company’s biggest challenge today isn’t attracting customers.
It’s keeping up with their demand for it.
“It’s an overwhelming feeling. I never expected it to get to this point. It already supersedes my expectations.”
