Business View Caribbean | September 2022

78 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 9, ISSUE 9 operating systems, also some components of the manufacturing process will be completely changed out. That way, we get a better product and we can produce more from the same machine, which will bring down the overall cost to us and we can pass those savings on to the customer. Keep ourselves relevant.” These are all very significant investments for Ready-Mix but well worth it in the long-term. This year alone, the company will be spending close to 6 million (Barbados dollars) to upgrade their facilities. This includes retooling and expanding the workshop while modernizing the mix truck fleet and, later this year, the installation of a brand-new concrete batch plant, which will increase the batching plant capacity to three. “That will allow us to service the older plant on a more regular basis and our efficiency will go up,” Mr. Brooker says. “I estimate we will be able to up our production by 40 percent, and in the block plants, we should be able to get at least another 15 to 20 percent on production once those upgrades are in place.” Presently, 30 to 40 percent of the company vehicle fleet is brand new, another 30 percent are eight years old or less, and the remainder are over 10 years but they are slated to come out of service by the end of 2023. “So our fleet will be very modern,” Mr. Brooker says. “We have to special order them directly because they have to be specified for our roads. Our most recent truck brand is SHACMAN trucks. The second oldest, which are still in very good condition, are Mack trucks. The newer trucks are much more fuel efficient – we had a good deep dive into getting them spec’d for Barbados and we are now retrofitting. We have four large concrete pumps that we’re retrofitting as well. Even our accounting system is being upgraded, so that we can focus on tracking costs more directly for each and every truck. Rather than