Famed Pepper Sauce Maven Prepares to Pass on the Baton

It is hard to imagine that it was over thirty-seven-years ago that the famous entrepreneur started producing our favorite Belizean peppers, jams and sauces in her kitchen. Since then the self-titled Marie Sharp brand has grown tremendously and moved into markets across the globe. Sharp is now seventy-eight-years old and she shared with us that the company is already looking ahead and preparing for the time when she will pass on the leadership baton.

Marie Sharp, Owner, Marie Sharp Fine Foods.

"We're putting in new people and understudies. Well, I'm 78 years old so anything can happen. Jody is with us and he has been working real hard and he can tell you all the countries that he has gotten into since he has been working with us. It is still going to be family. My understudy is my niece and she knows that she has to stay with what we're doing. I'm not saying that she can't bring in new ideas and she has taken over our accounting department and has really got them tipping. I'm very happy with here. She's going to work out and because she's family she has a lot of my traits. My youngest son, he's fifty something, he's the factory manager and my eldest son he distributes countrywide. So you know it's still a family thing."

Channel 5

Marie Sharp's parents were San Pedranos but left for Belize City JUST before she was born. Here's a great interview with her...

Interview with Marie Sharp
Marie Sharp: I was born in 1940 in Belize City. Actually my parents are San Pedranos, my parents migrated to Belize City the same year I was born. They were originally from San Pedro, Ambergris Caye My parents were separate when I was 8 years old, I came to live with my father , he migrated from Belize city to Dangriga and I came to live with him when I was about 9 years old for better education, because out in San Pedro most of the people only spoke Spanish and the schools were not very good, so for my educational purposes, my mother decided to send me to my dad so I can go to an English speaking school.