Dennise Williams, Staff Reporter
Charles Lym - JUNIOR DOWIE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
WITH A $300 million investment, Commercial Holdings is about to re-invent itself from a distributor to an indigenous box-making factory.
The firm is housed in the old Hand Arnold building. That firm has been around for 84 years and over the decades its business model has had several incarnations.
Started in 1922 by John Hand and P.A Arnold, the company was a commission agency representing Canadian and American companies.
Over the years, the company evolved to an importing and distributing firm for dry goods such as flour, edible fats.
By 1971, the company was sold to a consortium of investors headed by Charles Lym. Under Mr. Lym's leadership the company expanded from distribution of dry goods to Suzuki motorcycles.
However, times change and Mr. Lym has stepped away from distribution into manufacturing.
So while the business is housed in the building called Hand Arnold, it is the company Corrpak that will be taking the company into its next incarnation.
With brand new machines and technical support from Taiwan, Mr. Lym expects his factory to be up and running by May.
And this cannot be soon enough for his customers.
Mr. Lym said, "Both manufacturers and distributors find it difficult to get boxes because the suppliers of boxes, Jamaica Packaging Industries and West Indies Pulp and Paper had operating difficulties. This has created a shortage of boxes in the country. In fact, after doing our market studies we found there was support for a paper board factory in Jamaica."
There is so much support that Mr. Lym expects his 40,0000 square feet factory, once up and running, to produce 16 hours per day to meet demand.
And, Mr. Lym states, "We can match the imported prices. We have put in a new efficient plant that can compete with anything they have in the world." This efficiency is helped by the Bunker Sea Oil system that will cut the electricity bill of the factory by over 10 per cent.
In addition to supplying local demand, Corrpak will create new jobs. "Once the machines are up and running, we expect to employ 40 persons."
Now one of the sore points of many businesspersons is the cost of financing new ventures. Mr. Lym found a way around that. "We didn't use local banks because the interest rates are too high and the accompanying fees are too high. So we decided to access capital participation overseas."
Colin Lym, chief executive officer of Corrpak added, "You must have the money already before the banks will lend you."
Now that is not to say that local agencies didn't assist with the set up of Corrpak. Charles Lym said, "We had assistance from the government in that we were granted a deferral and waiver for general consumption tax on the new machines. Additionally, JAMPRO and the Jamaica Manufacturers Association (JMA) was very helpful when we were co-ordinating the venture."
Yet, it must be asked how they can be so confident when many people believe that manufacturing is dead in Jamaica.
Charles Lym notes, "We have our clients already lined up and that is how we were able to do our planning."
Colin Lym adds, "Manufacturing in Jamaica isn't dead. It just changed. We cannot manufacture the items shoes and textiles like we used to. Jamaica has to create its own market for niche products.
