FROM kitchen utensils, a few cherry trees and family members and friends serving as tasters, Mr. Geoffrey Murray has moved his little kitchen garden/cottage industry into a massive juice plant, requiring some $300M worth of fruits annually.

What he lacks in height, Murray makes up with his determination to excel, his honesty, creativity and knack for humour.

He recollects starting business purely through a chance meeting in 1982 and with a basket of cherries harvested from a dozen trees planted in a small orchard at Timehri, East Bank Demerara.

“In my kitchen, using a Hamilton Beach blender, a strainer, a spoon and some sugar and experimenting (with) a few family and friends, I literally started a cottage industry,” he explains.

According to the jovial entrepreneur, the rationale for planting fruit trees instead of ground provisions was simply because he “preferred to see outward progress instead of depending on below ground level development”.

“I certainly did not know at the time though, that it will change my life forever,” he confesses.

When the production from his kitchen met the approval of his tasters, he took the next step of trying it on paying customers.

“I did a simple sample test on a Guyana Airways Corporation flight crew through a friend,” he remembers.

“That was my first commercial contract, additional fruits were then added - carambola, pineapple and guava,” he explains.

Shortly after, a gift of two bags of passion fruits from friend, Bobby Fernandes, introduced him to what turned out to be one of the most acceptable fruit juice drinks.

He, however, confesses that prior to that, he did not have a clue about what to do with passion fruit, something he had never seen.

In 1983, he resigned from his position as Deputy Director of Civil Aviation, without any pension, gratuity or any other benefits, and registered his company, Timehri Orchard Products Company Limited (TOPCO).

“I intended it to be the top juice company in Guyana, and (with) determination TOPCO made its upward climb,” he states, while acknowledging that the going has not been easy.

In 1989, he noticed mango and plum produced abundantly in season, but they were not as easy to juice as other fruits had in his regular Hamilton Beach blender and additional equipment.

He had an idea - use a washing machine.

“I am sure Mr. Hoover did not intend the production of fruit juices to be one of the uses for his washing machine,” he remarks jovially.

The machine, however, by its centrifugal action, made the smoothest mango and plum juices, and eliminated the problem of the seeds. Subsequently, these juices also entered the market and are still holding their own, Murray boasts.

By 1992, he was quite aware of the need to make some serious decisions, since TOPCO had become too big to be run as a ‘one man’ operation. According to the entrepreneur, it “was crying to be uplifted from a cottage industry to a more established, recognised, quality conscious, accountable and financially viable control operation.”

Mr. Komal Samaroo, Managing Director of beverage giant Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL), visited the 30-acre orchid in September, 1992.

In Murray’s estimation, the trip was a total disaster. As he escorted Samaroo, they missed a few drains too many and mud on clean clothes and expensive shoes was the order of the day.

Within half-an-hour, the tour was over and Murray cursed himself day and night for blowing a looming opportunity of assistance.

He added that even a visit from an Agriculture Evaluation Officer did not perk up his hopes. But his wife kept assuring him that the short visit was an indication that Samaroo was impressed.

Three months later, Murray received a call from Samaroo requesting his presence at DDL ‘s head office in Kingston, Georgetown. There, he was introduced to the Chairman, Mr. Yesu Persaud, and the rest is history.

TOPCO came under DDL, and while the acronym remained the same, the T was changed to represent Tropical.