28 October 2015 - Business View Caribbean
ARC Manufacturing Limited
Building jamaica from the ground up
ARC Manufacturing Limited is one of the leading man-
ufacturers and distributors of building materials in Ja-
maica. It has been serving its local and global custom-
ers and partners in the construction trades for almost
20 years. The family-owned business was founded
by Norman Horne, who, according to Deanall Barnes,
ARC’s Vice President for Marketing and International
Business, hatched the idea for the company, one day,
while up in the air: “Norman Horne wanted to invest in
Jamaica. He was flying over the country and he recog-
nized that there were significant amount of zinc used
in the construction of houses,” says Barnes. “Subse-
quently, he started a company producing zinc sheets.
Thereafter, having an appreciation for business, the
company moved from zinc sheets to distributing lum-
ber, steel and steel-based products.”
In fact, ARC’s official history is just as Barnes recounts.
It was incorporated in 1996 as a Limited Liability Com-
pany (LLC), with a staff of five, manufacturing zinc
