Celebration Brands Limited (CBL), a Red Stripe and Pepsi Jamaica company, has engaged the Back to Basics Motorcycle Safety team to deliver safety workshops for the team of 60 Pre-Sale Executives (PSEs).

In August 2016, Celebration Brands Limited hosted the two of its three specially customised series at their distribution centres across the island. The first event comprised 27 members of the company’s Pre-Sales Executive motorcycle team from Kingston and Annotto Bay who received advanced classroom and practical training at the company’s 214 Spanish Town Road location. The second in the series of similarly customized workshops was held at the Celebration Brands’ Montego Bay location, where a set of PSE team members from St Ann and Montego Bay were taken thru a combination of practical and theoretic training on motorcycle obstacle dexterity, defensive riding, road and personal safety. In the coming weeks, the third is slated for their Manchester location.

According to Safety & Facilities Manager at Celebration Brands, Edmond Campbell, the company views motorcycles as essential tools and banks heavily on the safety and efficiency of its Pre-Sales team.

“We’ve been paying attention to the national statistics and working hard to ensure every one of our riders, everywhere gets home safely, every day. The Back to Basics vision of improving safety through education makes solid business sense for us and within the first few hours of the first workshop, it was clear from the intensity of the session, that Back to Basics has a winning approach,” said Campbell.

Celebration Brands motorcycling fleet of sales reps are required to be fully licensed to operate motorcycles: no learner licenses are allowed.

Director of Human Resources & Communication, Semone Thaxter said safety is critical he company.

“Safety First is a focus topic for all meetings and is top of mind for the entire business. When we adopted the motorcycle sales rep model we knew this was not the norm for Jamaica so we have had to think and act differently as our people would be more at risk. Therefore, for us motorcycle safety is paramount as it ensures a positive outcome in the lives of our team and their families as it will mean they will be safe whether riding for CBL or for themselves,” she said.

Back to Basics is a special project led by official Branson Centre entrepreneur Tarik Zawdie Kiddoe of Zawdie Business Ventures, working closely with colleagues from the Shango Bikerz riding group, Learn to Ride JA and other professionals. The initiative was formulated in response to an almost 300 per cent increase in fatalities among local motorcyclists from 2012 to 2016.

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CBL TEAM RIDES SAFELY: Members of the PSE sales team from Annotto Bay & Kingston strike a pose as they celebrate their successful completion of the Celebration Brands Ltd’s inaugural motorcycle safety workshop facilitated by the Back to Basics team, with lead trainer Tarik Zawdie Kiddoe, held in Kingston, on August 13.

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caption: Celebration Brands Ltd has pre-ˆ­existing safety policies. The Back to Basics team identified these two Celebration Brands’ employees as the most ˆ­equipped motorcyclists during the team’s visit to Westmoreland in March.