The juice man cometh in 2012

Sculptor, inventor, author and juice man are only a few of the hats that the man known as Stephen Okeke has donned over the past fifteen years in Belize. Okeke is also a mayoral candidate for the upcoming Belize City Council elections. His fame does not necessarily always bring fortune and several missteps have been made publically.  Recently Okeke has alleged that his juice business had come under attack by political operatives who don’t want him in the municipal race. He said that they threatened the customers of his fresh juice business. And a few days later after making these threats public, it appeared that the business had collapsed. One of his former workers publically trashed him over the airwaves. But this morning, News Five found Okeke on Freetown Road clearing the soil in front of one of the closed locations. Okeke said that Joy Fresh Juice is making a comeback in 2012.

Jose Sanchez

“Some people are saying that maybe you are the one who sent these texts to your employees, business was bad; so you had to close down. What are you saying?”

Stephen Okeke, Proprietor, Joy Fresh Juice

Stephen Okeke

“We are not closing down, we will not close down, we don’t intend to close down. Our juice business has become like a religion to some of our customers. And we can’t afford to offend them. From the first day you reported on this business, I had made it very clear I was putting it together to repackage it for somebody else or to resell. So we are not closing down, there is no intention to close down; we are just closed for the holiday. As you can see we are just doing renovations in all the shops for the New Year.”

Jose Sanchez

“The location on Cemetery Road was your headquarters, is that being closed down permanently?”

Stephen Okeke

“Well that location was just a production station so we can produce anywhere else and sell through our outlets. In fact, we are opening new outlets because the situation I had these few weeks have actually given me news ways of how to expand the business. But the location on Cemetery Road we decided to close it down because of some unfortunate incidences we’ve had there so far.”

Jose Sanchez

“Okay but the rumors or the allegations of you maybe you sent these threatening texts to your own employees, you had to shut down because business was bad. How do you respond to those?”

Stephen Okeke

“Well I am better than that. If I want to shut down business, I shut down business. I don’t have to threaten people’s lives or put myself in such an awkward position in order to close down a business. I’ve started businesses I’ve closed and I’ve started businesses I’ve sold out. I don’t have a problem. Even if I want to shut down this business right now, I shut it down. I have other things that I can do.”

Jose Sanchez

“There have been disgruntled, former employees of recent who have spoken out against you. What is that about?”

Stephen Okeke

“Well it is just one employee who said that in the whole situation here was a mix up and she turned in her key, but she wasn’t threatened and she was offered to come back for her job. I sent her text messages, but she decided to go on the air several days to make allegations and she came back on Saturday and we settled everything with a handshake and she’s on her way.”

Jose Sanchez

“And with this particular business, it looks like you’re either cutting the grass or digging up dirt; doesn’t look like juice.”

Stephen Okeke

“[laughs] Well juice is not just about the juice in the cup, it’s also about the environment and we want to make sure  in the coming year that the customers can come in more comfortably, to be more convenient for them and of course a new outlook. That’s what we’re doing right now.”