Small Entrepreneurs to Market Goods under Licensing Agreement Between ICC and JBDC

Micro, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, who are unable to apply for licences to produce logo items during next year’s ICC Cricket World Cup, will be able to market their goods under a licensing agreement between the Jamaica Business Development Centre (JBDC) and the ICC.
Minister of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, Phillip Paulwell at a press conference held on (Dec. 13) at his Trafalgar Road offices in Kingston, said that the JBDC has applied for and was granted a licence by the ICC to produce, distribute and vend craft items bearing its official markings, through its Things Jamaican shops.
The licence was granted on June 1, 2006 and is valid through to May 31, 2007. “This allows the JBDC to be the umbrella organization facilitating these small manufacturers and producers,” Mr. Paulwell informed.
The move, he said, would enable small manufacturers/producers, who may be unable to apply for licences to produce logo items, due to cost, quality and volume factors, to market their products during the staging of the international cricket tournament.
“The JBDC is authorized to prepare suppliers to trade under this licence; create a quality control and packaging centre for all Things Jamaican products; re-brand all Things Jamaican outlets with a cricket theme; create exclusive logo shops at two locations; and create cricket kiosks solutions,” he detailed.
Under the agreement, the JBDC is authorized to provide appropriate business and product development assistance for suppliers; facilitate appropriate financing and linkage management for increased output from licensed products/suppliers; and examine and create new distribution channels for licensed products.
Meanwhile, Manager of Technical Services at the JBDC, Colin Porter said that the licensing programme was “a new area for Jamaica and even for ICC CWC, because this represents the first time that they are opening up a licensing programme for micro entrepreneurs.
Previous licensing programmes have always been for the larger manufacturers, who can mass produce items, so we have decided to facilitate our small entrepreneurs in participating in this license programme”.
To date, Mr. Porter disclosed, there are more than 20 producers on board and “at this point we are pretty much closing the doors because we have less than 100 days before World Cup Cricket starts so the challenge now is to get the products on the shelves and to work with these producers to get things going”.
There are close to 60 different products represented with an ongoing approval process. “In addition to being just the umbrella licensee holder, what JBDC really is doing with these producers is to work with them very closely to prepare themselves. This is a new paradigm for a lot of them. They are not used to operating in such a manner. There are guidelines that we have to follow.we abide by the ICC’s licensing style guide, which explains to us exactly how the products are to be made,” Mr. Porter told journalists. The JBDC is one of three local licensees and one of six throughout the Caribbean region.