National Baking Company concerned about potential flooding in Catherine Hall

MONTEGO BAY, St James — Though there are still lingering concerns about flooding in Catherine Hall, Montego Bay, where National Baking Company is building a US$75-million plant, the company is optimistic that by the end of this year the project will be far advanced. It was originally supposed to be completed last year.

“I spoke to the prime minister [Dr Andrew Holness] about [the flooding issue] and I am going to take him at his word because it is a hell of an investment down there,” National’s chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Gary “Butch” Hendrickson told the Jamaica Observer Monday on the sidelines of the 11th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference in Montego Bay.

“He said he was going to have a lot of engineering studies and work done. I don’t think they can remove the whole risk, I think they can minimise the risk; but put it this way, how would I get flood insurance?” Hendrickson added.

Once completed, the 120,000-square-foot facility is expected to produce more than 3,600 loaves of bread per hour. It is in the heart of Catherine Hall, which was inundated with flood waters during last October’s Hurricane Melissa. Since then concerns have been raised about whether the problem will recur if there is another major weather event. Drainage work now being done in the area as part of the Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project has been touted as a solution to the problem.

“We are very fortunate we didn’t have any equipment in there; if we had any equipment in there we don’t even want to contemplate that,” Hendrickson said of the fallout from the Category 5 storm.

But Melissa will likely still have an impact as the project’s price creeps up with each delay. In 2023, the CEO told the Observer that the working budget for the plant was about US$60 million — pushed up by inflation — but the final price tag was not yet known. On Monday, he estimated it would be about US$75 million.

The company has also had to absorb other costs as a result of the hurricane.

“We’ve had a lot of equipment delayed because we had to ask suppliers to hold it in the United States so we’re actually paying rent,” National’s director of sales and marketing Craig Hendrickson told the Observer.

However he, too, is optimistic that the MoBay project is largely back on track despite the hurdles.

“It’s good, it’s proceeding but… after Melissa we had a lot of back-up, we had to wait on some of the [loss] adjusters to come through before we could actually proceed with the construction. Now that we’ve caught back up, we have different timelines. Hopefully by the end of the year we should be about 80 per cent there,” the younger Hendrickson stated.

He said the still-incomplete structure held up well during the heavy rain and strong winds that battered western Jamaica during last year’s storm, giving the company confidence in its resilience.

“It has been hurricane-resistant so far, hopefully there is not another one; but yes, so far everything is fine, just the flooding that took place,” Craig Hendrickson said.

He is looking forward to the completion of the facility and the positive impact it is expected to have on the region.

“I think it will be a good thing for the entire western end of the island. Selling bread is not really just about us selling to customers, but it is about other shops being able to make their own business and sell to their customers as well,” he said.

Kingston is the only location from which National now produces. The bakery itself covers 270,000 square feet, but the company operates on about 12 acres of space across the capital. The Montego Bay plant is part of a wider attempt to prepare for a new phase of growth in the local and export market.