Promising Jamaican sprinter joins Usain Bolt as PUMA brand ambassador

Javon Francis joins PUMA’s global brand ambassador and triple world record holder Usain Bolt

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Wednesday July 2, 2014, CMC- A Budding Jamaican athlete who ran an astonishing relay leg to catapult his country from 5th to second at last year’s World Championships in Moscow has landed a professional contract with PUMA.

Javon Francis joins PUMA’s global brand ambassador and triple world record holder Usain Bolt as Jamaicans signed to the brand, the German sporting goods manufacturer has announced

Jamaican Sprint hurdlers Hansle Parchment and Andrew Riley, along with intermediate hurdler Ristananna Tracey also hold professional contracts with PUMA.

Details of Francis’ contract have not been made public.

“It’s an exciting time,” said Francis, the IAAF World Championships 4x400m relay silver medallist.

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“I am grateful that PUMA recognises my talent and have offered me such support, especially because of the commitment PUMA has for track and field in Jamaica”.

Francis rose to international prominence when he ran an astounding anchor leg at the World Championships last year in Moscow, Russia.

He took Jamaica from fifth at the final changeover to second, just holding off Russia for the silver medal, a performance which earned him the 2014 Viewers’ Choice Awards at the Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year ceremony.

“We’ve watched Javon develop through the high school programme in Jamaica, seeing him develop into a fine young athlete with considerable potential,” said Christian Voigt, senior global head of sports marketing at PUMA.

“His talent, enthusiasm and character suggest he’s a star in the making, and he’s a wonderful fit for PUMA in our new ‘Forever Faster’ era”.

Francis, who withdrew from last weekend’s National Senior Championships nursing a sore hamstring, has a personal best 45.00 for the 400m.

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Promising Jamaican sprinter joins Usain Bolt as PUMA brand ambassador

Is brand Marley losing its roots?

WITH a restaurant, coffee, and a musical associated with his name, is there a danger of anti-establishment hero Bob Marley being over-commercialised?

That was the question pitched to the reggae legend’s daughter Cedella recently by Speakeasy magazine.

She said no, pointing out that her father, who would have turned 69 tomorrow, was more than a singer/songwriter.

“We have to remember Daddy was in the music business and it’s a business. At the same time, we keep the integrity of the man separate from the integrity of the musician,” she explained. “It’s a fine line because I don’t think lots of people know Daddy was a very smart businessman. He started his own record label, built his own studio, started his own distribution company where he was pressing records,” Cedella added. “He was very strict when it came to his business. He was the first person to print a Bob Marley T-shirt [laughs], let’s not get it twisted! He would wear his own T-shirt because that is the music business.”

She pointed out that T-shirts remain one of the most visible and profitable forms of Marley merchandise. There is also Marley coffee which is produced by her younger brother Rohan.

On Thursday, Cedella’s musical Three Little Birds (based on one of Marley’s most famous songs) opens at the New Victory Theatre in New York City.

Not all Marley merchandise have been a hit. A shoe line, launched in the 1990s, was shelved. Plans for a Marley beer never materialised.

Cedella spoke about plans for a One Love Café and also commented on the challenges of tracking illegal use of the Marley image.

We’re trying to combat a lot of the bootlegging. Every single day I get 100 letters from the lawyers. ‘Infringer, infringer, infringer’. So you try take care of all of them. As soon as you close one down you have 10 more that pop up,” she said. “The laws are different in various parts of the world, and you spend a lot of time and money doing infringement work. But an easier way to deal with that is almost like you have to step into their place because there’s a need for it,” Cedella continued. “If there wasn’t a need for that product, people would not be doing it. If we can do it in a more respectful manner, keep the integrity and message of our father, we’re always open to finding ways of making things a little bit better.”

Bob Marley died from cancer in May 1981 in Miami at age 36.

Three Little Birds is scheduled to end its run on February 23.

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Is brand Marley losing its roots?

Malicious and false claims made to sully Wisynco brand

By Al Edwards

Sunday, February 02, 2014    

Local manufacturer Wisynco last week was the target of a malicious and vile social media campaign to denigrate its name and ruin its reputation.

Spurious and unsubstantiated claims were made that its products were laced with Aids-infected blood in an attempt to cause panic and prevent the public from purchasing Wisynco goods.

The Group has made strenuous efforts to reassure the public that all its products are of the highest standard and comply with rigourous hygiene and quality tests and can be safely consumed. Wisynco is conducting a thorough investigation into the matter.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Justin Felice, who is head of the Financial Investigation Division (FID) said: “I have not heard of this incident but it possibly could be a criminal offence. Wisynco should get its lawyers to write a letter of complaint and send it into DCP Carl Williams on the 8th Floor of the South Tower on Hope Road.”

It is not established whether this act was done as corporate sabotage, or by a disgruntled employee or for retaliatory purposes to avenge a perceived wrong or slight.

On Friday, the Constabulary Communication Network issued a news release which read: “The Police are at this moment denying reports on social media that they are investigating reports of contaminated products at Wisynco Group Limited.

“At no time was the police ever called in to investigate any such case at Wisynco. There is also no report on any of our records from anyone about any issue concerning the consumption of any Wisynco products. The attribution to the Police involvement in investigating this rumour is malicious to both the Police and Wisynco.”

Former Deputy Police Commissioner and now head of Shields Crime & Security Consultants Limited, Mark Shields said: “If a criminal investigation were to be pursued the burden then becomes establishing beyond a reasonable doubt that this act was committed in order to attempt to deprive the company of money, or to blackmail it, or that violence was threatened, or there was some kind of extortion. There is certainly a case for civil action where the burden is proof is perhaps not so high. It is clearly wrong and actionable to maliciously seek to damage a company’s reputation.”

Wisynco has been operating in Jamaica for almost fifty years and is one of the stalwarts of the local manufacturing sector. It has the largest warehouse and distribution centre in the country. It produces local brands such as Wata, CranWata Bigga and Boom. It manufacuturers under licence Coca-Cola, Schweppes, and for Dr Pepper the Hawaiian Punch brand.

The Group employees 2,000 employees and is one of the largest taxpayers in Jamaica, re-investing all its profits in the country. It is getting set to make a $1 billion investment in a production and energy operation, which will be a game changer. It is renown for being one of the best sponsors of cultural and social events.

This attempt to malign and discredit Wisynco would jeopardise jobs from one of the largest local employers in Jamaica and one of its best corporate citizens.

Chairman of Wisynco, William Mahfood, speaking with Sunday Finance said: “If there ever were problems with any of our products, services or operations, we would be the first to go to the public, not just through social media but the formal media and be upfront and forthright about what we are being confronted with. We take our obligations to Jamaica and all our customers very seriously.”

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Malicious and false claims made to sully Wisynco brand

Jamaica"s tourism tries to cash in on post-Olympics brand

BY JULIAN RICHARDSON Asistant Business Co-ordinator richardsonj@jamaicaobserver.com

BEIJING, China — A Chinese guide for Portia Simpson Miller pointed his finger with pride to where Usain Bolt scorched the track at the 2008 Olympics inside the world-famous ‘Bird’s Nest’ National Stadium in Beijing.“Bolt’s Nest,” he highlighted, jokingly to the Jamaican prime minister — who is wrapping up the Beijing leg of her official visit to China — a nickname given to the US$423-million landmark after the sprinter’s exploits here, along with his fellow countrymen.On Friday morning during an interview with Simpson Miller on the State-run CCTV, broadcast to hundreds of millions of people, the interviewer made several references to Bolt and Jamaican athletics with comfort.Five years after the fact, the performance at Beijing 2008 is among the most popular topics brought up for discussion by the Chinese as Simpson Miller and her delegation go from point to point on a five-day visit aimed at deepening the already-strong ties between Jamaica and communist China.“The impact of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing is that the recognition of Jamaica, the flag and the symbols are very high in China. The point of identification with China is the Beijing Olympics,” said Ralph Thomas, Jamaica’s ambassador to the Asian giant.“The Jamaican image is out there for a small country in a big market,” he added.However, questions remain as to whether or not Jamaica has adequately capitalised on the brand recognition, especially in the area of tourism, which was a major target market after Beijing.The number of Chinese travellers internationally and the value of their expenditure have been growing rapidly in recent years. China is expected to become the world’s fourth largest source of travellers by 2020, generating 100 million outbound tourists each year, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation.But despite stopover arrivals in Jamaica having more than doubled among Chinese from 935 in 2008 to 2,102 last year, according to annual travel statistics published by the Jamaica Tourist Board, it is still less than one per cent of total stopovers on the island and the ambassador feels the country is missing out on the most populated market in the world.“We have made progress (generally) since Beijing, but the area we have not made sufficient progress in is the area of tourism, which really stands to benefit the most,” Thomas told the Jamaica Observer, as the delegation got ready to board a flight to Shanghai, where the Prime Minister will spend the last day of the official trip.“Everybody knows destination Jamaica in China,” Thomas said, but he reiterated that the two issues slowing the penetration of the Chinese travel market remained that of visa restrictions and lack of airlift.Shanghai mayor Yang Xiong backed Thomas’s assessment during a welcome lunch for Simpson Miller’s party the following morning. He made particular reference to the “total flight time of over 20 hours” as particularly prohibitive.“We must work together to ensure more visitors,” Yang said.“If you ask a Chinese about a destination in the Caribbean, it’s (also communist) Cuba followed by Jamaica,” he added to emphasise the country’s popularity.Thomas supports abolition of visas for the Chinese, for whom getting a Jamaican visa may be challenging, as depending on where persons are, they may have to fly for hours to the Jamaican embassy in Beijing to get one.“My view of it is that visa abolition is something that could cause many visitors to come to Jamaica,” said Thomas, emphasising that it must be done with control so visitors don’t overstay.“If that happens it could take away one of the obstacles that makes it inconvenient to travel to Jamaica,” he said, noting that Jamaica has visa abolition policies with many other exotic markets, including Eastern European countries such as Russia.With regard to the other obstacle of airlift, Thomas said that the Chinese need more direct flights to Jamaica, in shorter distances rather than having to fly for 20 hours all over the world and intermittently changing planes in other countries in order to get to the island.To this end, Jamaica is making “strategic linkages” with industry interests and looking at airlift opportunities, Thomas said.At the same time, the proliferation of Chinese investment in Jamaica, such as the logistics hub being explored by the Government in collaboration with China Harbour Engineering Company, will help to drive Chinese visitors to Jamaica, the ambassador reasoned.“If we were to get the big Chinese investment in the logistics hub,” coupled with the fact that “a lot of Chinese travel for business purposes, it’s natural that there would be greater interest in tourism to go along with it,” Thomas said.Thomas praised the mission led by Simpson Miller as one that is hitting the right notes towards attracting investments and subsequently bringing more Chinese to Jamaican shores. The feeling here among some members of the delegation is that it has been one of the most successful state visits yet.“The prime minister’s personality is one that wins hearts and so they are totally charmed by her but at the same time she is having serious negotiations and discussions to advance some of these things,” Thomas said in his assessment.Bolt and company would be perfect ambassadors to advance the cause, Thomas added, not ruling out engaging the services of the athletes to more aggressively market the country as a destination to the Chinese.“Certainly from where I sit in Beijing, I would be encouraging that we take advantage of their goodwill and something that’s of great resource to the country in terms of helping to market this idea of Jamaica being a destination for Chinese tourists,” Thomas said.Beijing National Stadium tour guide Darcy Hu shows Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller a section of the track at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing, China. (PHOTO: DAVE REID/JIS)THOMAS… the Jamaica image is out there

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Jamaica"s tourism tries to cash in on post-Olympics brand

Holding Brand Jamaica and JADCO"s hands

SINCE 2010, the University of the West Indies, Mona, has been hosting a series of anti-doping workshops that seek to educate the public, athletes and their support staff about anti-doping matters.

The university has invited international stakeholders such as Dr Susan Backhouse, principal author of a WADA 200-page manuscript on predicators and precipitating factors in doping, Dr Jeffrey Benz, former general counsel of the USA Olympic Committee; and the founding president of WADA, the controversial Richard Pound.The workshops have not got the traction the university had expected, but the university stands resolute in the support of Jamaica’s anti-doping programme and is calling on Jamaica to join hands in helping JADCO in its mandate to foster a doping-free environment in Jamaica that promotes the ethics and spirit of sport and deters the use of banned doping substances in sport through education, testing, advocacy and programmed coordination.Too many of our young athletes are being caught in the world of doping espionage. The weight of a nation is on Usain Bolt’s shoulders because he has remained above the fray. He and all the Jamaican athletes at this time need our undivided support. We recently heard that all 41 athletes present in the training camp in Moscow were tested simultaneously (under the same condition and temperature). As a seasoned researcher, this to me implies a nation tested for comparative analysis with standard data probably already well established by IAAF and/or WADA for the biological passport.Legally, nothing is wrong with scooping down on our athletes because of the plethora of adverse analytical findings Jamaica had between May and July of this year. If WADA at anytime suspects any doping violation, the body is within its right to target test. This does not mean that JADCO is not doing a reasonable good job. Notice, I did not say perfect, there is room for improvement, but let us examine JADCO’s performance in contextSample submissionsThe statistics presented on testing for 2012 can be viewed on the WADA website. The Caribbean Regional Anti-doping Organization (RADO) which consists of 14 countries including Trinidad and Tobago, Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, Dominica, St Vincent, and St Kitts and Nevis has submitted 49 samples to WADA- accredited lab/s in 2012. The sample submissions from anti-doping agencies or commissions in some countries in 2012 are as follow: Nigeria, 35; Belarus, 245; Bermuda, 58; Barbados,13; Guatemala, 39; Costa Rica, 4; Brazil, 128, and Jamaica, 106. JADCO should not be compared with UK or United States Anti-doping agencies which in 2012 submitted 5,971 and 4,051 samples, respectively.These countries have far more resources and athletes per capita. By sports in the year 2012, football (28,008) was the most tested closely followed by athletics (27,836) and cycling (20,624). JADCO is indeed trending as it should, spending most of the testing dollars on track and field in 2012. Jamaica has traditionally done well in track and field, so athletes from this sport should be the ones most frequently sampled.As Jamaicans, we need to stop talking and move brusquely forward in protecting our track and field legacy. The World Anti-doping Code is under review, this is the third review since enactment in 1999. There will be a super meeting in November of 2013 in South Africa where the whole matter of supplements will be examined by the IOC, the IAAF, WADA and national and regional anti-doping commissions. It has been proposed that if an athlete can prove that a supplement was contaminated with an unlabelled, banned ingredient, then the athlete may be warned or given a reduced sentence of a year or less if the banned ingredient is found in his/her system. If the athlete cannot prove that the supplement was contaminated, then the new sanction for first time offender beginning 2015 will be four years. This in effect will shorten the careers of many athletes who are caught using supplements.SupplementsSupplements out of competition unless specified (see the WADA code) are not illegal and are sometimes necessary to help athletes heal and recover effectively. It is when the out of competition-in competition period gets blurred that the athlete gets into trouble. The FDA has just sent out an emergency warning on July 26, 2013 about Purity First B-50, marketed as a vitamin B dietary supplement. Preliminary FDA laboratory analysis indicated that the product contains two potentially harmful anabolic steroids-methasterone, a controlled substance, and dimethazine. These ingredients are not listed on the label and should not be in a dietary supplement.“Products marketed as a vitamin but which contain undisclosed steroids pose a real danger to consumers and are illegal,” said Howard Sklamberg, director of the Office of Compliance in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. In this regard, an appeal is being made to the Diaspora, and the private sector to help the university establish the Caribbean Toxicology Lab, CARITOX by the fall of 2014. This toxicology lab will be able to test all supplements and prescribed drugs that are mis-labelled. The CARITOX lab is a pre-emptive strike before the new WADA rules come into effect at the end of 2014.$60 million needed for labThe university has already spent $120 million and needs $60 million to get the lab fully functional. The university wants to make it clear that it is not proposing the testing of any biological samples for banned substances. JADCO must be allowed to continue its mandate of collecting and sending biological samples to WADA-accredited labs for testing. The university will be able to test contaminated supplements which the athletes might ingest and, if found contaminated, the athletes and their respective sporting bodies can then hold the manufacturers responsible based on sound scientific evidence that will be allowed by WADA.Contrary to what many might think WADA is not evil and have something in place in the revised code to be implemented in 2015 in regard to contaminated supplements and protection of the athletes. The onus is now on the athlete to prove contamination by the manufacturer, thus relaxing the strict liability clause to an extent.The university is ready to hold the athletes and JADCO’s hands, but needs to have the toxicology lab up to test these contaminated products that might inadvertently get in the system of the Jamaican athlete. Diaspora can you raise $60 million for this lab?Editor’s note: Rachael Irving, PhD is a Senior Research Fellow & WADA Researcher at theDepartment of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, Mona.

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Holding Brand Jamaica and JADCO"s hands

"A big brand"

Business

Friday, August 09, 2013

Orlando, Florida resident Tracy-Ann Williamson Barnwell highlights something of interest on her Bigga soda bottle to Wisynco export manager Stephen Dawkins, during a presentation ceremony for Williamson Barnwell, winner of the Bigga Escape Contest, at the Wisynco headquarters in St Catherine on Monday. Bigga maker Wisynco awarded an all-expense-paid party weekend on the island to Williamson Barnwell, the top contestant in the Facebook-based summer promotion that invited people to take a photo with a Bigga and have others vote on the picture. The promotion is part of Wisynco’s drive to penetrate the flavoured soda market in the US with Bigga. (PHOTO: GARFIELD ROBINSON)

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"A big brand"