News

The Supreme Ventures Foundation (SVF) has named four small businesses making a big difference in their communities as part of its flagship Supreme Heroes programme.
Supreme Heroes recognises organisations that are pillars of their communities, unsung heroes who are using their limited resources to lend a hand to those in need.
“Supreme Heroes is, chiefly, a capacity-building programme that seeks to identify persons who are already making a difference. So our participants are already doing the most with what little they have, and we see the impact it is having on the community,” Heather Goldson, director of the SVF, told The Gleaner.
The four heroes include an eco-village in the heart of Kingston and a small shopkeeper in western Jamaica who uses the proceeds from her shop to support the youth in her community.
They are Life Yard in Parade Gardens, Kingston; New Horizon Christian Outreach Ministries in Spanish Town, St Catherine; Jennifer Brown of Miss Jenny’s Shop in Norwood, St James; and Elma Thompson of Miss T’s Hardware and Variety Store in Granville, also in St James.
Nominations for the programme opened on October 21 last year and closed a few weeks later, on November 8. A total of 22 nominations were received from the public via phone and online, traditional, and social media. Entries were judged by a panel comprising partners and Supreme Ventures Group staff, who used a wide range of criteria, including relevance, impact and sustainability, and feasibility.
 

IMPROVING OUTREACH COMPONENTS

Noting that the revenue of these businesses makes outreach possible, a major component of the programme is ensuring that both the outreach and business components are improved through training and capacity building.
“The heroes will be provided with training, resources, and advice on business continuity and sustainability. They have been provided with resources to help with the social outreach that they are conducting for their community over the six months,” said Goldson.
The programme got started in late August, and online training for the Supreme Heroes will begin in October and end in February 2021. The four participants will, among other things, be assisted with the registration of their business and non-profits, financial accounting, and taxation. Risk management and resilience have also been added to the training being offered in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Each Supreme Hero was assessed to determine the needs of their businesses by Change Makers Limited, which is organising the roll-out of the programme with the assistance of the Mona Entrepreneurial and Commercialization Centre.
“We wanted to not only provide additional funding to our heroes but also to strengthen their business capacity. Our partnerships with Change Makers and the Mona Entrepreneurial and Commercialization Centre allows us to provide training and coaching across a number of basic business disciplines from finance to leadership,” Goldson shared.
Samantha Chantrelle, founding director of Change Makers, agrees. She said that she is heartened and inspired by the work and response of the participants.
“We are working steadily with them on building their capacity to deliver more and deliver better,” said Chantrelle.
At the end of the programme, all four beneficiaries should be registered whether as a business or non-governmental organisation or both. They will also have a five-year business plan, inclusive of a comprehensive financial plan, and will be provided with basic hardware, software, and knowledge to improve the operations of their businesses, as well as to streamline their outreach programmes.
The heroes also submitted a social project to be worked on for the duration of the programme.
“The social projects were submitted by each hero and is based on the outreach they currently do in their neighbourhood. They were asked to identify a specific need in their community that, when completed, will have a multiplier effect [for] as many persons as possible,” shared Goldson, noting that the project should be sustainable and have the ability to be replicated once the programme has ended.
The organisation with the best-performing project will receive an additional cash grant.
“The grant will be awarded based on who executed [their] project most efficiently and effectively,” the SVF head stated.
 
Source: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20200919/svf-names-four-supreme-heroes-programme-bolster-business-and-outreach

Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL) is looking to digitise its 11 business lines by year-end, a move the company said would improve earnings.
Chairman Gary Peart reckons that anonymous gaming, which can be facilitated through digital channels, will attract more customers.
“This will allow us the opportunity to expand our current and historical customer base. With a digital channel, it opens up the space for people who traditionally would not want to join a line beside a hole in the wall,” Peart told Loop News.
“The biggest advantage in gaming is what is called anonymity, where people love to bet and nobody knows they have bet. The digital space opens that market for us,” he said.
Digital success, he added, requires a robust internal IT infrastructure which the company already possesses.
The SVL chairman also noted that the company has its sights set on further expanding outside the local market.
“We are always in discussions with other players, and the opportunities which present themselves, so stay tuned.”
Asked what are the main challenges foreseen as COVID-19 continues to spread, and what are the strategies being applied to deal with them, Peart answered: “I don’t see any challenges out there that we can’t overcome, all of the things that we discussed prior, we are already down the road.”
On the topic of closures and layoffs the executive chairman noted, “Closures, and layoffs were primarily due to COVID. Unfortunately, we have seen where there is a second phase and we don’t know how deep the government’s measures will become. If there are going to be any future layoffs, it will be as a consequence of either a total lockdown or a near total lockdown.”
“Notwithstanding, because we are committed to going digital and we already have work-from-home scenarios, the only segment of the group that will be susceptible to that would really be the temporary workers out by Caymanas [Park],” Peart said.
Peart added: “We have gone to a near lockdown, we have come out of it, we have brought people back on, and so we try and put measures in place to protect them and cushion the impact as much as possible.”
The company’s diversification across 11 products will continue to be a trump card with higher revenue seen on online and virtual gaming options, the SVL chairman said.
Peart stated, “The beauty about SVL because we are so diversified in terms of gaming products, that while you have seen a reduction  in gaming events,  they are now seeing above average betting income”.
He said, “We are putting ourselves in a position that – God forbid – we had another lockdown, we would have those digital solutions, we should be fine.”
Peart also noted that not much challenge comes with digital expansion.
“It is easier to setup a digital distribution channel than a fixed channel. Once you’ve perfected the app, phone or website, you know, it’s just the case of getting that app on people’s phones or that website address on people’s mind. Once you have done so, which takes some amount of marketing, that is your only impediment,” he shared.
Furthermore, online internet and mobile requires a lower fee than what you pay to a fixed location, and you have that benefit as well, that the efficiency of distribution will be increased, Peart said.
 
Source: https://www.loopjamaica.com/content/supreme-ventures-looks-go-all-digital-year-end

Supreme Ventures Guyana Holdings, which recorded losses in its start-up year 2019, had its problems compounded by the outbreak of COVID-19 and a disputed general election in that country in March.
Retailer recruitment and buildout of the network continues in Guyana, but have been hampered by the two events.
Nonetheless, executive chairman of parent company Supreme Ventures Limited, Gary Peart, on Thursday assured shareholders that company heads had devised a new strategy that should get the business positively contributing to SVL Group results by March 2021.
“We have seen a setback from our original plan, but we are happy to announce that we have created a new strategy and we expect this business to start contributing positively to the group’s profit by the first quarter next year,” Peart said during the company’s annual general meeting.
The chairman, however, did not go into detail about the strategy for the subsidiary.
Supreme Ventures Guyana was launched in Georgetown in February 2019, operating as iBet Supreme.
While discussions are happening around improving the earnings for the Guyana operations, which in quarter had lost $54 million, Peart anticipates that regarding the group, profit would improve overall based on a combination of projects already under way – including the horse track tours with Chukka Caribbean and the launch of Supreme Ventures Services Limited, plus other things to come over the next three to six months.
Like many other companies, SVL’s operation was negatively affected by the outbreak of COVID-19, but it managed to maintain profit of $929 million on revenue of $9.6 billion for the six months ending June.
Internally, the company has been looking to minimise costs and recently took the decision to consolidate its offices on one property – moving its registered office and principal place of business from the R Danny Williams Building in New Kingston to 9A Retirement Crescent.
 
Source: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20200911/svl-projecting-turnaround-lossmaking-guyana-operation-march