Alexandra Consten, director of Ambience, holds onto a piece of tableware from the Villeroy and Boch line on offer at her new store. - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer
Alexandra Consten, a German diplomat posted in Jamaica for two years, has launched out into business with a culinary-life-style outfit in which she has invested €200,000 (J$20 million).
"I am thinking about staying here," Consten told Wednesday Business following a private viewing of Ambience, three days ahead of its weekend opening.
Consten wants to bring to the table a splash of European lifestyle through high-end culinary accessories, wines, foods, and sauces.
"I started from scratch, trying to bring European culinary lifestyle to Jamaica - kitchenware, tableware and table culture - how do you sit at the table properly, what kind of cutlery and plates do you use, which wine glass and what wine you use for fish and so on," said Consten.
Ambience, located at the Liguanea Mall in St Andrew, offers three culinary lines - classic, country and exquisite - and carries a selection of German wines, jams, pickles, chocolates, granola bars (unsweetened with fruits) and gingerbread.
Consten said the idea to start the business came about when she visited a friend, who has a similar store in Grand Cayman, in 2006, the same year she came to Jamaica. The concept was successful there and Consten thought that it could also work in Jamaica.
Battle with bureaucracy
She began putting the pieces together soon thereafter. But, like everyone who tries to do business in Jamaica, Consten had to battle the bureaucracy for approval, a process, she said, that threatened to drown her dreams.
"It has been interesting. I had moments when I said 'Wow! this was easy'. But, I also had moments when I said how can they make it so difficult," she told Wednesday Business.
"I spent hours, days, weeks with some of the authorities."
Consten said throughout the process, she has tried to keep the two vocations separate.
"My left side is a diplomat and my right side is a businesswoman," she said.
"I pretty much have two lives in Jamaica. Right now, I am a diplomat on sabbatical. I have diplomatic immunity on the private level, but the whole store is built from scratch, so I have a work permit, NIS, NHT, TCC, TRN - the whole shebang," she added.
"I pay duties on everything that I bring in because I try to make everything a 100 per cent legal to separate both lives as much as I can."
Consten will be physically in charge of the business, only for a short time.
"I might actually go back next year but the store will still be here." she said.
"I have a general manager, who is very good and she will run the business mainly. I will be travelling but I will be based here," Consten said of plans to maintain ties with Jamaica.
john.myers@gleanerjm.com