78 November 2016 - Business View Caribbean
a few projects of two and three hundred thousand,
upwards to $1.5 million. So, the size of the projects
and their quantity has really been reduced. The work
that they’re doing now is ‘license to operate’ work; it’s
work that they have to do to continue to operate their
facilities – maintenance work and repair work that’s
required. They’re not doing the optional ‘if we improve
this, we can make more product,’ type of operations,
they’re doing ‘if we fix this, we can keep running’ type
of operations. So we’ve had to diversify back into the
service sector to support those operations.”
In fact, when it comes to diversifying, Kellum says that
over the next five years, he would like to see BSI diver-
sify completely out of the petrochemical industry, all
together, and into other areas such as food service,
transportation, and tank fabrication. And he believes
that the company’s core competencies would translate
well. “You don’t have explosive gases running through
a soup plant, but you do have high temperatures, the
same types of corrosion, the same types of problems,
but they have to be fixed to a much more stringent
standard than what we’re dealing with now as far as
cleanliness and material traceability,” he says. “And
those are things, that with our quality program that we
have in place, and our ethics that we have in putting
out a good clean product, it’s easier for us to move up
to the food services industry than it is for someone to
come over out of that industry to ours and try to do the
same type of work.”
Meanwhile BSI Services Trinidad Limited will contin-
ue to offer its current clients the same high quality
work for which it is known throughout the island na-
tion. “We’re an ISO 9001/2008 company,” Kellum de-
clares. “It’s a quality standard that we meet. There’s
also a requirement within Trinidad and Tobago that’s
called the STOW certification (Safe to Work). STOW cer-
tification is required with all of your large oil compa-
nies in Trinidad. Out of all the companies that certify in
