They all thought he was crazy. When Wilbur Balgobin, owner of Willie's Ice Cream, began selling coconut ice cream on a street corner in Chaguanas, leaving behind a promising career in computer technology and information systems, friends and family were ready to commit him to St Ann's.

 "I remember my brother, who was in Brazil at he time, telephoned me and all I could hear on the phone was someone singing a song the palette man used to sing when we were growing up as children:

Palette somebody call, you want meh there, no no.

You want me there, yes, yes.

 "And he started to heckle me. 'What happened to you boy. Your mother spend all that money and send you to England to study and this is what you come back home to do?' "

 That was back in 1986, two months into a business that has become one of the most successful in Trinidad and Tobago's food and beverage industry. The business is so successful that Balgobin was the recent recipient of 1997 Entrepreneur of the Year award in the Manufacturing and Food Processing category. And those doubting Thomases have had to eat many words.

 Balgobin returned to Trinidad in 1982 having graduated from the North Staffordshire University, England in information systems.

 He readily admits that success has been hard won and, even more than that, is getting even harder to improve upon.

 Balgobin is preparing to open the first North American Willie's outlet in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in December. The outlet is a former Taco bell drive-thru and there he will be competing with US fast food giants, McDonalds, Burger King, Subway and Arby's along Ft. Lauderdale beach.

 With the opening of the new outlet he hopes to push packaged pints and quarts of his popular ice cream into supermarket chains.

 Balgobin received the keys for the new outlet about a week ago and described its as a significant penetration into the US market - a larger effort than the eight West Indian shops and delicatessens in New York which serve up the Willie's ice cream.

 Willie's exports a container of ice cream every three months, not significant, Balgobin admits but, the international outlets only contributes five per cent to the company's overall profits.

 With the new outlet in Florida, Balgobin expects that percentage will increase.

 But the Willie's thrust into Europe has been blocked since 1995 when Trinidad and Tobago got a failed rating from a European veterinary team sent here to inspect the conditions of farms and dairy-producing plants to see if they met European standards.

 "Trinidad and Tobago failed miserably and a detailed report was sent to the Ministry of Agriculture, identifying clearly what the nation needs to do to meet the European requirements."

 The black mark from the Europeans not only blocks produce from farms and abattoirs but all dairy-based products, including ice cream. Balgobin blames the Ministry of Agriculture for failing to properly prepare for the visit.

 "We were at the vanguard in terms of getting the visit to Trinidad and we were a little disappointed that the Ministry of Agriculture did not try to put its house in order and its farms before the visit.

 "It was one of the most important inspections on our veterinary systems and we failed," Balgobin said.

 So, for now, the Balgobin dream of exporting to Europe is on hold. He sees the decision as unfair because, "it is really a non-tariff barrier on ice cream or any dairy-based product, because by rights non-entry to those products should be based on the quality of the product and not the country."

 "I want to export ice cream to you and you coming to look at my abattoirs and farms to see if they are dirty and all my milk powder comes from Europe."

 He has received help on the matter from the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce but feels the Foreign minister, Ralph Maraj, and the Minister of Agriculture should be actively pursuing the matter.

 The setback has not derailed his growth efforts. At his Freeport factory on Arena Road, not far from El Chico Farms, his employees churn out 150,000 gallons of ice cream each month, 6,000 every week.

 The factory is small; just a few high-grade machines with just about 15 employees. Balgobin started with just two people, including himself, working in the kitchen and helping at the cart.

 His first flavours were coconut, soursop and peanut - popular flavours then, to be followed by the equally popular Guinness. Coconut, a flavour he liked as a child, is also an integral part in the preparation of several flavours.

 But as the company has expanded the challenge for Willie's has been to maintain the homemade taste in mass manufactured ice cream.

 Balgobin has equipped his factory with specially designed machines to reduce the level of overrun - the amount of air in the ice cream. Homemade ice cream has little air, which maintains its rich taste and texture.

 "Homemade ice cream is an unstabilised product with no artificial emulsifiers and stabilisers. We had to take this product and put it through manufacturing, distribution and marketing and ensure it retained the same taste, texture and mouth feel."

 It does send production costs up because 50 per cent of the manufacturing process at the plant goes into fruit juice extraction.

 "The fruit juices go directly into the ice cream to maintain the original fruit taste," he explained.

 Balgobin intends to open a full-fledged fruit processing plant dedicated to fruit processing.

 Balgobin chose Chaguanas to start his business because the St James and Port of Spain areas were saturated with homemade ice cream stands and Chaguanas was an untouched venue.

 As a Port of Spain boy, having grown up in Petit Valley and attended Belmont Intermediate and St Mary's College, the trip "down Central" was a major step. But nine months after going into central, Balgobin opened the first Willie's store, just at the entrance to Lange Park, next to a take away restaurant. He realized there were some people who were wary of buying ice cream on the street.

 "From there outlets kept popping up all over the country, from Marabella to Arima to St James," he recalled."

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Winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and owner of Willie's Ice Cream, Wilbur Balgobin, will create history by opening its first outlet in Fort Lauderdale, Miami on Saturday. It will be the first ice cream company to market its franchising concept in the United states from the Caribbean and will be located on the busy Oakland Park in Fort Lauderdale in the Wilton Manors district.

 The outlet is expected to have both a sit in and drive-thru facility. The store has been designed to convey the beauty of the Caribbean and is comparable with any mainstream fast food outlet. The overseas venture has taken the company nine months to complete, which started in May 1996 and involved a great deal of market research.

 The opening of Willies Ice Cream in Miami is part of a strategic plan to gain a share of the United States frozen dessert market, which in 1996 generated 10.3 billion US dollars. Balgobin said "our launch into North America has required us to go back and look at our unit cost, our packaging and the quality of our product, in order to compete effectively on the international market".

 The new store will serve as an outlet for ice cream shipped from Trinidad and the flavour names have been modified to bring the air of the Caribbean to Miami. Some of the names include Limbo Peanut, Beach Coconut, Mango Tango, and Vanilla Vacation.

 Speaking about the challenges Willie's faced in setting up the businesses, Balgobin, who spearheaded the project in Miami that "the project has been a learning experience and also very much a challenge, particularly the site location exercise, as it was difficult to obtain an available location whose demographics matched our targeted customer profile".

 The project was fully supported by the government of Trinidad and Tobago including the tourism and Industrial Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago (TIDCO) and the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB). Also assisting was the Consulate General of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in Miami.

 Congressmen Tracy Stafford and Josephus Eggelleton will be on hand at the opening ceremony.

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History was created on Saturday February 7^th, when Willies Ice Cream became the first Trinidad and Tobago based ice cream store to be located in the United States of America.

 Located at 500 East Oakland Park Boulevard, Wilton Manors, Florida, this shop will offer the American public a chance to experience the Caribbean through a variety of local flavours.

 Wilbur Balgobin, winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award and owner of Willies' Ice Cream expressed his pleasure at the opening ceremony. He hailed Willies as an example of a company from Trinidad and Tobago opening in the U.S. Balgobin added that this would help to strengthen the ties between the two countries. He explained that the US store will provide employment and will provide for the purchase of goods and services from the parent company in Trinidad and Tobago. "In the same way, our operations here will provide jobs in T&T and the export of goods and services from T&T", Balgobin said.

 Speaking at the opening ceremony, Chandradath Singh, Consul General of Trinidad and Tobago praised Willie's Ice Cream as the first business to operate in the United States outside of Trinidad and Tobago. Singh said that this was an example of Trinidad and Tobago's preparedness in securing a place in the global economy.

 "This fact could be better appreciated when we consider the very demanding requirements which a food product such as ice cream must fulfill to be able to operate in the USA", Singh said.

 Speaking on behalf of the government of this country, Singh gave his full support to Balgobin in his "significant venture". He then encouraged the business community of Trinidad and Tobago to follow the lead of Willie's and pursue an aggressive export programme, in an attempt to boost non-oil exports of the country. The Consul also invited US investors to consider investing in non-oil sectors of Trinidad and Tobago. Singh said that the advent of Willie's should serve as an incentive in this regard.

Adding his congratulatory words to Singh's, Josephus Eggelletion, member of the Florida House of Representatives, said that Balgobin had vision and foresight to develop and encourage a small business enterprise as opposed to relying on tourism to generate revenue for the country. Eggelletion, who will be heading a trade mission to Trinidad in March this year, added that the development of the small business sector is critical for economic growth of a country. He also encouraged Balgobin to take advantage of the business opportunities that will be available at the Black Entrepreneurial meeting to be held in Disney World in May this year.

 Tracy Hafford, another State Representative for Wilton Manors, said that the project was a positive move towards enhancing business in the area.

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