Chairman of the Wisynco Group William Mahfood says more than 1,000 prospective employees turned up at the job fair recently held by the company, more than doubling its target of 400 workers. The fair, initially slated to last for one day on May 21, was extended by another day to accommodate the crowd that turned up at the event.

“I would say it was oversubscribed. We ended up having to extend it for a day because we couldn’t manage to interview so many people on the set day. It was a huge success,” Mahfood said. The company is still in the process of deciding whom to hire from the candidates who were interviewed on the spot.

Wisynco’s job fair was held in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security at the Celebration Church in Portmore, St Catherine. Over the past few months, Wisynco has employed some 170 individuals for its growing business, but with ongoing developments in production, operations, and sales, the company said it was on the hunt to hire 300 to 400 people during the summer.

Wisynco has advertised vacancies for positions such as sales associates, process operators, loading coordinators, utility technicians, maintenance technicians, forklift operators, machine operators, warehouse attendants, operators, and merchandisers.

The beverage production company is in the middle of executing its largest capital investment project following the rapid growth of its products, which include brands such as Wata bottled water, Bigga, Boom, and Cran Wata, while distributing products like Coca-Cola, Tru-Juice, Red Bull, and Worthy Park Estate rum products.

Over the last nine months, Wisynco has installed new production lines, expanded its warehouse, and its LNG (liquefied natural gas) plant. The manufacturing and distribution giant spent $2.37 billion in its 2023 financial year on the expansion, which is set to nearly double its production capacity.