The entrepreneurial spirit drives growth in local construction companies
The building industry in Trinidad and Tobago has been driven mostly by the Government’s multibillion-dollar construction initiatives. These include government office complexes, culture and tourism projects, infrastructural projects – hotels, roads, highways, the three-mile stretch of waterfront area, plus the over TT$900 million University of Trinidad and Tobago campus, the TT$450 million Academy of the Performing Arts, and the just-completed TT$148 million Prime Minister’s Residence and Diplomatic Centre.
Private sector investment in the energy and real estate sectors has added to growth in construction. This construction boom has helped to energize the economy already boosted by the tremendous oil and gas revenues and related expansion projects, and has resulted in the development of an entrepreneurial spirit reflected in the other sectors of the economy. The local construction companies have developed rapidly, even as they increasingly face higher inflation levels, impending labor shortages, and competition from foreign construction companies.
A leading member of the Trinidad and Tobago Contractors Association, the Junior Sammy Group of Companies started with Junior’s father, Elgin Sammy, renting one flatbed truck to general contractors over 40 years ago. “Today our company is the Caribbean’s number one contractor for foundation works, drains, and roads. We target the heavy industrial market – mostly the multinational companies. Building our reputation in heavy foundation works, we are now the largest in asphalt paving and are considered one of two categories that the government and international companies would choose for road works and building foundation. We are also now developing our capacity for mechanical work,” said Managing Director and Executive Chairman, Junior Sammy.
Junior Sammy tells the story of how he was fascinated by the trucks in his father’s truck yard during his early school days, often getting into trouble for preferring trucks to school. After completing his education, Sammy joined his father and added tractors, excavators, and cranes to the fleet of rental equipment, strengthening its equipment portfolio. When he took over the company in 1980, he seized the opportunity of favorable market conditions to add two asphalt plants and developed an extensive asphalt business, which brought his company into the road construction arena. He incorporated the business with his mother, Sybil, and wife, Linda, as fellow directors.
After five years, Sammy again applied his entrepreneurial skills to his business, but this time it was in concrete production, buying out four concrete plants in different parts of Trinidad. Concrete production turned out to be so successful that he soon had over 44% of the market in Trinidad and sold it to Trinidad Readymix Concrete Company Limited, which now stands as the single largest producer of pre-mixed concrete in Trinidad and Tobago and the English-speaking Caribbean. He continued to manufacture hot and cold asphalt mixes for paving operations, becoming Trinidad and Tobago’s leading asphalt paving company.
Sammy had sold the concrete business with the understanding that he would not be involved in the making of concrete for 10 years. That time is now at an end and he has resumed production, much to his relief, because as his business expanded into construction, the demands for concrete increased requiring that he purchase the valued commodity at huge costs.
Sammy has consolidated other family businesses to create a conglomerate of companies providing diverse capabilities in the construction industry. Member companies include Sammy’s Multi-lift Services Limited, Jusamco Pavers Limited, Rubber and Chemicals Company Limited, Jusamco Readymix Limited, and Junior Sammy Contractors Limited, all under the umbrella of Junior Sammy Group of Companies.
Over the next five years the focus will be on more development projects related to the energy sector. Dave Aqui, the group’s Director and Chief Executive Officer indicated that some of the projects completed are the roadways and bridges, electrical works, paving, drainage, and landscaping of the Piarco International Airport car park; the civil works of the Farmland MissChem Ammonia Plant, which included tank foundations, earthworks, and pipeworks in addition to roads and paving; site preparation and infrastructure for Price Smart Trinidad in Chagauanas; the site preparation and foundation for the ammonia plant 111 of PCS Nitrogen in Point Lisas; and the foundation for the Titan Methanol Plant.
