Business View Caribbean - November 2015 75
“At one time, the hardware store was approached for
an order of structural steel which the family did not
carry. Jack didn’t refuse the order but instead, after
due research, sourced the necessary material. Once,
because of a mistake he made in the quantities he or-
dered, he incurred a surplus. So he decided to market
the surplus material in the local newspaper, which he
then sold for a very good profit. Inadvertently, he had
started the D. Ramoutarsingh’s Steel Department.
Jack would soon venture on his own by establishing
Dansteel, a hardware store he named after his father
and new born son. The company motto was in line with
the family’s values: ‘People who care about people
who build.’
“One day, they were receiving steel products that they
bought internationally – in this case, it was re-bar –
and one of the bundles they were offloading fell off the
truck and the bar broke when it hit the floor. And my fa-
ther knew something was wrong. He had a feeling that
the traders and mills were supplying the country with
sub-standard materials on the international market.
And he was a very proud man. He was always of the
opinion that we should make the very best products.
“Around that time, many of his customers were working
for the sugar industry in a state-owned company called
Caroni. When Caroni closed the refinery, the entire vil-
lage of Reform, Gasparillo became unemployed on a
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
Trinrico Steel and Wire Products Limited
WHAT:
Manufacturer and distributor of steel and
wire products for the construction industry
WHERE:
Reform Village, Gasparillo, Trinidad
WEBSITE
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