By Ainsley Walters, Staff Reporter
Steve Sirgany talks about his plans.
STEVE SIRGANY, a director at Jamaica Fibreglass Products Limited (JFP), is pushing forward with a bold plan to corner the regional market in restaurant furniture, pushing to remain profitable in what could become the world's largest trading bloc upon implementation in 2005 the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
One of five companies approved by the Yum! group (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's and A&W All-American Food Restaurants) to manufacture and supply its franchise holders in the Caribbean and Latin American region with trendy furniture, JFP has an expansive operation at its 11a Ashenheim Road facility in Kingston.
Named first runner-up champion exporter of 2001 behind Red Stripe, JFP's furnishings and decor work can be seen locally in fast food restaurants such as KFC and Pizza Hut stores - chairs, tables, partitions and garbage receptacles in addition to leisure and business furnishings.
Regionally, JFP has already outfitted 20 restaurants in the Dominican Republic. However, the company's advantage of enjoying duty free access to CARICOM markets, an edge it has held since discovering what Sirgany described as "a niche market" 12 years ago, could be seriously threatened by huge American firms when the Americas markets are rid of tariffs come January 2005.
"My competitors are all big boys," said Sirgany, who described his business as a family one, started 18 years ago "under a tree".
"These are big companies which do millions of dollars worth of business," he added, commenting on his competitors, who will no doubt be seeking to expand outside the North American market when the FTAA comes on stream in another two years.
Knowing it will be tough to infiltrate his competitors' market, Sirgany has a five-year plan to build clientele within the region, a move which would see JFP become regional supplier for other international chains outside the Yum! group, similar to what it has already done locally.
A former PepsiCo subsidiary, Yum! is second in global fast-food sales, behind McDonald's, but outnumbers its rival with some 32,500 locations in more than 100 countries.
"It's a race against time," Sirgany said, but he is counting on his company's reputation for speed and quality, from quotation to delivery, to woo new businesses regionally.
"Once our stuff gets to the buyers, they're thrilled," the JFP director pointed out. "It's not totally dependent on prices at times," he added. "Potential customers come here and see our set-up and hands-on management style. With the bigger companies, you could be talking to machines for 20 minutes when you call."
At its 50,000-square foot facility, the former ServWel assembly plant, JFP has five production areas fibreglass, metalwork, woodwork, solid surface and upholstery with 40 employees working simultaneously to get orders out and strung to a conveyor which takes products high overhead across the road to the remaining ServWel plant, where the spray finish is applied.
Sirgany is keen to explore new markets and says their next job could very well be a KFC outlet in Ecuador. The store plan has already been e-mailed to JFP's design department and quotation plus colour layout should be ready within a week.
"Being the new kids on the block, we undercut prices in addition to having a duty-free advantage in CARICOM and some South and Central American countries," said Sirgany, explaining how a small Jamaican company manages to stave off North American giants.
"That's what has been getting us the work," he said.
