Business View Caribbean | March 2021

101 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN MARCH 2021 MASSY GAS PRODUCTS ( TR INIDAD) L IMI TED Massy Gas Products (Trinidad) Limited, now the Massy Group’s Industrial Gases business, with operations in Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, and Colombia. The company employs around 130 workers and Maharaj says they are not concerned about finding skilled labor. He notes, “Ours is a specialized area, so we generally have a very stable work environment because our workers tend to be highly skilled in this area. Because we have trained them over several years, we have low turnover. We also operate in a unionized environment, and our excellent working relationship with the union further enhances our work environment’s stability.” The company has a continuous training program that brings younger personnel into the organization and trains them, besides giving engineering graduate trainees from the university access to an internship program. “We also seek employees’ children who are of age, nitrogen and carbon dioxide not just to the Caribbean region, but to Central America and as far north as Puerto Rico.” While supplying industrial gases is the company’s core business, it offers two other business lines: specialty gases and value-added services and consultation. Its specialty gas line supplies ultra-high purity and research-grade gases, gas mixtures for calibration standards, and electronic-grade gases. Its services business arm offers cryogenic storage tank and bulk storage system installation and equipment sourcing, like food freezing and wastewater treatment equipment. Its consulting business assists clients seeking specialized solutions that meet environmental and regulatory requirements. “This company is more than 85 years old,” narrates Maharaj. “Founded in the 1930s as a gas company, it has over the years evolved both in ownership and business model to what it is today.” That evolution encompasses a series of mergers and acquisitions that have seen the company emerge as an amalgamation of three companies: Massy Gas Products (Trinidad) Ltd. (formerly Industrial Gases Limited), Liquid Carbonic West Indies (LCWI), and Trintogas Limited (TGL). Incorporated on November 21, 1935 as Industrial Gases Limited (IGL), Massy Gas Products (Trinidad) operated primarily from Aranguez – manufacturing and selling oxygen, nitrogen, and acetylene. Meanwhile, LCWI solely engaged in the manufacture and sale of carbon dioxide, while TGL was involved in the welding and medical supplies sector. The merging of the three entities resulted in a highly diversified business that operated under the name LCWI. In March 1975, the Massy Group, a local multinational conglomerate, acquired a majority stake in the Joint Venture vehicle that owned LCWI. Eventually, a Massy Group rebranding effort in 2015 saw LCWI renamed as