• Brand engineering: Licensed builds that pass stringent U.S. testing for quality and FR—a must for global hotel flags. • Vertical integration: Foam, springs, fibers, quilting, assembly—all under one roof for quality control and availability. • Supply optionality: A tested roster of rawmaterial suppliers across regions, rotated based on price-lead-quality. • Speed: 2–3 day production-to-ship windows when orders hit the floor. • Assortment in a box: Multiple brands and SKUs in one container, perfect for smaller island markets. • Sustainability in practice: Internal recycling that pushes factory waste toward zero. • People: A virtually 100% local workforce—from factory teams to sales reps—augmented by Spanish-speaking reps for Spanish-language territories. PEOPLE FIRST—AND LOCAL “We’re 100% local in Trinidad,” Travis says. “We work with trade schools to recruit technicians and engineers early, then train and keep them. Retention matters—constant retraining is costly.” He’d like to see further government and education focus on trades: “There’s significant opportunity here for technicians, electricians, engineers—especially in manufacturing.” THE RELATIONSHIP BUSINESS— MEASURED IN MARGINS Travis is pragmatic about what keeps retailers loyal. “You have to sell a product that sells, and that gives the retailer sufficient gross margin,” he says. “If not, the SKU gets replaced. And if you have repetitive 45 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 10 ADVANCE FOAM LIMITED
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