He Went to the US With Only $50 and Has Become One of the Best Jamaican Entrepreneurs (Video)
The odds were against him, but George Yapp, an entrepreneur from Jamaica still managed to build Leasa Industries, a company that is now one of the largest growers, manufacturers, processors and packers of healthy food products across the Southeastern United States.
Each year Leasa Industries grows 3 million pounds of bean and alfalfa sprouts hydroponically.
The company also manufactures 1 million pounds of tofu with total sales nearing USD$ 10 million in 2011.
Yapp states: “No CEO or Chairman can run a company by himself. The people below you are the ones making the money. Not you.”
His employees hail from the inner city of Miami. The majority of them were previously either homeless, on welfare or in dire need of a ‘second chance’.
Achieving this great level of success was no easy feat for Yapp.
When he arrived in the United States nearly 40 years ago, he had a meagre $USD 50 in his pockets.
According to leasa.com, “in 1977, with funds borrowed from friends and relatives, George and Einez Yap bought a bankrupt company in Liberty City, Miami and began to grow and sell bean sprouts. Hence, the birth of Leasa Industries Co., Inc, in April 1977.
The company was named using the first initial of each member of the family: L. George Yap, Einez and their three children, Andrew, Sean and Allison. The business started with just $175.00 a week in sales but lost $30,000 during the first four months of operation. The company’s gross income during that first year was only $5,000, while debts were ten times that amount. George worked in his business seven days a week, 16 hours per day while his wife Einez, held two jobs to keep the family afloat.”
Check out this feature on the incredible Jamaican Entrepreneur below:
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