After several weeks recounting the troubles of the soft drink bottling companies in Cuba, Los Portales and Las Lomas, the official press of Ciego de Ávila is dealing today with the third largest company on the island, Ember (Beverage and Refreshment Company), that also serves Sancti Spíritus. His case contrasts with that of other companies in terms of avoiding economic disaster, although to do so have had to diversify the business so much that the life of soft drinks does not seem assured either.
Ember had planned to obtain 220 million pesos in sales this year, but, aware of the overdose of optimism, the company presented a readjustment plan that did not reach 90 million. “The considerable reduction was not accepted by the Ministry of the Food Industry, because it implied a 90% reduction in alcoholic beverages and 45% in soft drinks,” says its director, Juan Carlos Poveda López.
According to the official, the difficulties in producing alcohol and sugar are having an impact on the manufacture of beverages, although they are not the only reasons. Today only 24% of soft drinks, 32% of alcoholic beverages, 80% of wines and 100% of vinegar are produced. The situation reached an extreme in which the accumulated debt with Tecnoazúcar, one of his partners, amounted to 9 million that, today, are being liquidated, they say.
Another initiative they have taken, as a result of a collaboration with La Candelaria, is to acquire concentrated pulp jams that they package, process and market
To try to underpin this scenario, the company has had to invent solutions that have allowed it to greatly improve the outlook, even generating profits last May and guaranteeing its production for June, July and August. Despite this, having the forecast set at 220 million, they are very far from the objective.
“We intend to close December with all the workers relocated and without losses, despite the fact that the expected profits are not met. We would approach 180 million pesos in sales, with 25% assurance of raw materials,” says the manager optimistically.
To get there, the company has had to dedicate itself to the most varied activities, including the rental of spaces and vehicles. Two of its trucks are rented to the self-employed, one that collaborates with the health sector and the other with the dairy company. On the contrary, the private workers who had company points located in the City Park were removed from them since, they affirm, much more is obtained with the income from retail sales at the weekend fair (30,000 pesos) than with the lease (5,700). For rent, they even do it with the company’s protocol room, gastronomic service included.
More inventions: they make plastic cups with a small machine from the bottles that are damaged in the production process, they sell them for 40 pesos and, they say, they have “good demand.” So much so, that they are not sure of being able to do as many as they are asked.
Another initiative that they have taken, as a result of a collaboration with La Candelaria, is to acquire jams made from concentrated pulp that they package, process or market through different channels. In addition, from there they obtain the first concentrated syrup from mango jam with which they make up for the lack of essences for soft drinks. “We subsist on that, because there is no phosphoric acid, there is no sodium benzoate, there is no sugar and there are no essences.”
The jams have become juices and soft drinks and the Ember workers also make food (conger eel with beef, food and salad, for 230 pesos) or sell flavored vinegars or seasoned dry wines.
To obtain local gin there is a budding project that will be the first international economic association contract signed by the Ministry of the Food Industry
Sweet wine, another product that was stopped, has been lowered by two degrees of alcohol (from 13 to 11) and yeast has been increased to stimulate fermentation, with which these drinks are guaranteed until the end of August. The hibiscus flower also helps to provide greater quantities of wine, a plant with which, as if that were not enough, it is planned to make hygiene products, “although doing so is difficult at the moment, because equipment and resources are needed.”
To obtain local gin there is a budding project that will be the first international economic association contract signed by the Ministry of the Food Industry.
“It was made with a large part of Avilanian raw materials, with the jam from an independent producer from Ceballos. From there, we were asked for 4,000 liters of guarapo, even to process a level of land, where to take out the cane, grind it, process it and distill that guarapo. That everything be agroecological”. In addition, they aspire to have other industries in the area to obtain the fruit and, finally, to distill the alcohol, some 250,000 bottles, they hope.
In an abandoned plot that is next to the company and that served as a car parking area until recently, it has been planted, allowing the collection of more than 30 kilos of products destined for the dining room that are sold to the workers, and it is planned to open a line cocktail packaging with more than 30 alcoholic beverages that also contain agricultural products from Ciego de Ávila.
According to Poveda López, this year the need for alternatives has led to not hiring four of the base business units. “They are looking for it themselves,” snaps the manager, who has had to do everything to save another company that was sinking. The efforts of the workers, however, are not well recognized in the laudatory report of Invasive, which attributes the improvements to the “43 measures approved to strengthen the socialist state enterprise and another 17 guidelines from the Ministry of the Food Industry.”
“It is not that they are invented – says the note – it is that they have been granted the power to beautify every penny”.
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