Our Story
OUR STORY – A Caribbean Tale
St. Lucia,1994. Rudy Gurley, a budding corporate executive and his fiancée, Susanna Ramjeawan, realizing the perils of climbing the corporate ladder felt the need to prepare a soft landing to cushion a fall. When a relative offered the couple a small, used pasta machine they visualized the possibilities. Not only was pasta a favorite but seemed virtually recession-proof, food for all seasons … so to speak. Thus began preparations to lay the foundation for a soft landing.
Thanks to Bobby Brown’s 1988 hit ‘Roni’ – bizarrely, a tune introduced to Rudy by his ‘skinhead’ neighbor during his London days – a brand name came easily. It didn’t matter that the lyrics had nothing to do with pasta and everything to do with a beautiful young girl. According to Bobby …
"Only Tender Ronis
Can give the special love
A special kind of love
That makes you feel good inside"
The Tenderoni brand was conceived and delivered in June 1994 & when the soft landing was needed some 11 years later, Tenderoni was there.
Today, Tenderoni Foods Inc, having recently installed a fully-automated Italian-made plant, is the Eastern Caribbean’s leading pasta producer. And thanks to a strategic alliance and exclusive distribution arrangements with the region’s biggest and most technologically advanced producer, Tenderoni has grown into the Caribbean’s largest pasta distributors capable of fulfilling over thirty 20ft container-loads daily.
The company produces and distributes an impressive range of pasta products, Lasagna, macaroni & cheese dinners, and its ever-popular Cheddar Cheese Sauce Mix. Tenderoni is believed the only manufacturer worldwide to produce chow Mein noodles using Durum Semolina instead of the usual white flour.
When, in 2017, Tenderoni disrupted the mature Mac & Cheese market by defying the Kraft-originated tradition of presenting mac & cheese dinners in boxes and launched a version in printed stand-up pouches, St. Lucian customers loved it (and its associated price) and a winner was born. That product has now become Tenderoni’s fastest seller domestically, and, upon touch-down, is projected to eclipse boxed mac & cheese regionally.
Tenderoni remains committed to fulfilling its mission to become regional pasta consumers first choice, profitably delighting them with impeccable products of unsurpassed value, quality, and taste.