57 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN APRIL 2021 FOR THE BEST QUALITY WINES &Meats ANSA MCAL CENTER, RODNEY ROAD, ENDEAVOUR, CHAGUANAS 502160 1-868-671-2860/61 DACHIN GROUP OF COMPANIES challenges facing our world but insists that he’s on the path towards getting things back in line. He shares, “I’m trying to keep us going, to help get people back in touch and remove that fear of struggle. I have a lot of ideas and they just come like that. I test them myself. I talk to a lot of people. I ask a lot of questions. I research. And then, one day, I say: ‘I love this, I think this could work.’ The advantage I have is that I went to Canada, a first-world country. Then I came back to a second-world, developing country. I can see the gaps and the opportunities; what works in Canada and what could work here. Sometimes you have to adjust to the culture of the local fraternity. If you do things that aren’t local, they won’t come. They’ll boycott. The people of Trinidad and Tobago are very patriotic.” Chin adds that he’s trying to adapt his business model and expectations to meet the demands of a dynamically shifting industry. He notes, “I’ve reached out to some very experienced consultants. The business’s identity is entertainment, but COVID is an anti-social disease, so that’s the challenge. I still feel cinemas are going to make a comeback, but we needed a buffer for when things like this happen. Real estate can cover some of those losses, but you’ve got to act carefully with big capital investment items. I need to go public with the company, to expand on my restaurants and different concepts.” In the meantime, he’s experimenting with a test kitchen, producing packaged, frozen food products being sold throughout the island and he’s hired a consultant who used to work for Campbell’s. The Dachin company currently sells frozen pizzas, macaroni and cheese, and they’re graduating to more sophisticated products. While admitting he doesn’t have much expertise in this area, Chin believes there is a lot of potential and knows this is a valuable platform. He’s also looking at diversifying with local partners to package Trinidadian favorites like callaloo for distribution to other parts of the world. All in all, it’s an eclectic list of projects, but there’s one philosophy guiding Chin’s business moves these days: “Everything is about the grandchildren.” He explains, “A lot of my directors are in their seventies. We’re very much in the world as grandfathers. We’re actually setting up a park here next to us where I have a little space. We’re building it out as a Dinopark – sort of a themed amusement park with moving dinosaurs. You know, kids love dinosaurs. That’s my next passion project.”
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