JAVIER Gutierrez Abril has today set out ambitious plans for Caribbean Goods, the Glasgow coffee importing business he launched after coming from Guatemala to Scotland to study in 2017.
The young entrepreneur hopes the venture can have a social impact by buying “responsibly sourced” green coffee from growers in Latin America who come up to standard on “three pillars” - business, fair pay, and social well-being.
But even though he has a clear vision for what he believes Caribbean Goods can achieve, he is aware that a little guidance from an older head can a long way.
READ MORE: Maxi still on track after 40 years under veteran haulier
Mr Gutierrez Abril has made the astute move of bringing Scottish hospitality veteran Maurice Taylor on board as chairman of his company. Mr Taylor, perhaps best known for founding French brasserie La Bonne Auberge in Glasgow in the 1970s and the Parklands Country Club in Newton Mearns the following decade, has taken on a mentoring role for Mr Gutierrez Abril as he looks to fulfil the potential he believes the business holds.
The hospitality chief may not have run a coffee company before, but he certainly has a strong track record of building companies from scratch, and it is that experience that Mr Gutierrez Abril will be looking to tap into.
READ MORE: Scottish transport giant shrugs off loss of major rail contract
For Mr Taylor’s part, he sees something of himself in the young Guatemalan and, now he has the time, hopes to lend the expertise he has amassed over recent decades to help Mr Gutierrez Abril and other aspiring entrepreneurs like him.
He also makes a telling point about the benefits that foreign students such as Mr Gutierrez Abril can make to the economic wellbeing of Scotland, at a time when the country is crying out for young people with skills to build their future here.
“A lot of entrepreneurs quit or leave our country,” Mr Taylor declared. “We need zealous, ambitious, passionate people to light a fire under Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here