aug-2017c

88 89 TRINRICO STEEL ANDWIRE PRODUCTS LIMITED panies had now inadvertently become potential competitors, as well. Trinrico struggled with a sole raw material supplier that marketed its products through encouraging other manufac- turers to be formed, and what was perceived as an unfair local and regional pricing policy. The technology remained stagnant, and the mar- ket changed. Local, regional, and international manufacturers all sought to fill the void Jack Ramoutarsingh left behind and their partner- ships with global entities plus the implemen- tation of modern technology left his company uncompetitive. But like his father before him, Daniel was driven to succeed. He went to work for his fa- ther at an early age. He began at CENTRIN and then was reassigned to Trinrico. Toward the end of their days at CENTRIN, father and son had begun to experiment with alloy steel through a tolling agreement. Though it was successful, the scale was very small and the elder Ramou- tarsingh predicted that one day the hot rolled production of re-bar would become common and uncompetitive in a market saturated with competing manufacturers on an international scale. Daniel travelled to Europe, and re-intro- duced the family to the leading machine manu- facturers and suppliers. He eventually arrived in Italy, to the very same region where his father had procured and built his own machines. He remembers calling his father from an office in Udine, to let him know that he had just pur- chased a machine and now he had no money, to which his father simply answered “Welcome to manufacturing.” While Ramoutarsingh was Marketing Director, but not yet the Chairman of Trinrico, he took a slight detour from the family business, finding success first as an amateur and then as a pro- fessional racing driver. At times he would be in the car about to start a Pro Race, while on the phone doing Trinrico business. He believes that since Trinrico was the title sponsor of all his cars, it gave the company more exposure. “Certainly, we got our first supply cut and bend rebar contract because of motorsport partici- pation and today that’s what we are known for most,” he says. Eventually, his ability to under- stand technology and work with machines, combined with a competitive mentality, steered him back home to apply what he had learned during his years of racing - and to fulfill his fam- ily’s destiny by taking over his father’s dream. He became Chairman of the Board of Trinrico Steel and Wire Products Limited and strength- ened relationships with old suppliers, while seeking new ones. He revisited the manufactur- ers of machines for all the products in Trinrico’s portfolio and embarked upon a course to uplift the moribund company. His focus, now that he was his own primary end user of steel and wire products, was to gather the best suppliers in the world and produce to a global standard. Us- ing chemical, mechanical, and structural prop-