William Mahfood, managing director of Wisynco, says he has lost market to cheaper Chinese imports. - File

Susan Gordon, Business Reporter

In a matter of months, Wisynco Group Limited will cease the manufacturing of Ironman water boots, worn by farmers islandwide, in a concession to the forces of globalisation, or more specifically, competition from China's cheaper imports.

"I don't know the exact date," said Wisynco boss William Mahfood, referring to the lockdown of production.

But, it will be "between three to six months," he told the Financial Gleaner.

"If we could find someone out there to take over the equipment and run it for us we'd be out sooner than that."

Considered cutting

Wisynco has been manufacturing Ironman boots locally since 1965 from a single machine, but began considering cutting the item from its product mix two years ago when it realised Chinese imports were available for half the price or less on the local market.

However, Mahfood said the decision would not impact significantly on the company's revenue.

The company has already begun to scale back on its production which stood at about 500,000 pairs per year when the boots were kicking up market demand.

"There's no possible way we can compete with China," Mahfood commented to the Financial Gleaner.

He said Ironman had always had competition from Europe and South America, but was able to hold its own against those markets.

Different dilemma

China, however, poses a different dilemma. The world's most populous country at 1.3 billion people has cheaper labour and lower production costs that gives even the big superpowers, the U.S. and EU, headaches.

Wisynco began to see a decline in its water boot business five years ago when the Chinese imports began to flow here, Mahfood said.

Jamaica also buys U.S.-made boots.

Wisynco has now chosen to give in to the inevitable.

"We want to concentrate on those imports on which we can compete," said Mahfood, alluding to a reshaping of the company's distribution and manufacturing business mix.

Wisynco once exported the Ironman to Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, two of its biggest markets, when the sugar industry was still fairly vibrant.

Trinidad in recent years has scaled back its sugar industry and plans a pull-out by year end, barring interest from private investors.

Wisynco has also phased out the manufacturing of plastic bags, including the black generic grocery bags - referred to locally as 'scandal bags' - as well as plastic cutlery.

Mahfood estimates that about 95 per cent of those items now come from China.

"We are not going to have any material loss for doing do, as we have expanded in other areas," he said, noting they accounted for less than two per cent of the company's operation.

Wisynco recently landed the contract to distribute Kellogg's cereals here.

susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com