GMSA honours outstanding leaders in manufacturing, business sectors

Nov 22, 2015 News

Those persons who exemplified ingenuity and years of unwavering commitment to the manufacturing industry and to the business community were honoured on Wednesday by the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA.)
The event was hosted at the Pegasus Hotel and chaired by Alex Graham.

The group of outstanding members of the manufacturing and business community who were recently honoured by the GMSA

JTW Associates Ltd. was one of the many companies honoured. Joycelyn Williams, the driver behind this progressive entity, has for some years, been filling the needs of the public and private sectors for trained skills.
In 2012, she took a huge leap of faith and approached City and Guilds of London with a proposal to accredit Guyana once again. It was deemed as a bold and impressive move when she resorted to the highly accredited international certificate programme which had been absent from the education curricula for more than 30 years.
Since then, JTW Associates has been running certifiable courses for City and Guilds in Customer Service, English for Office Use and Marketing. In addition, their trainers are being called increasingly to offer on-the-job training to raise the quality of the companies’ public representatives.
As a result of its outstanding commitment to the private sector, it was given an award for its invaluable contributions to educational services in Guyana, especially for restoring City and Guilds Certification.
For 41 unbroken years of consistency in superior Insurance Services to the Manufacturing and Services Industries, Abdool and Abdool Inc. was presented with a plaque by Resident country manager of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Sophie Makonnen.
The Massy Group of Companies, formerly Neal and Massy, has been in existence since 1932. After 26 years, the group of companies went public and continued with diversification of products and services. The group was honoured for its 50 years of service to Guyana and for attaining international certification.
In recognition of its contributions to the growth and development of the ICT sector in Guyana, Qualfon remains the largest company of its kind in Guyana. It was honoured for its achievements to date.
For rapid penetration, innovative labeling and packaging with Guyanese raw materials, Umami Inc. was honoured by the GMSA. It was noted that the driving force behind the new operation was the need to produce high quality, value added products utilizing home grown ingredients.
Aggressive marketing has put the products of the fast growing company on almost every supermarket shelf in all three counties of Guyana.
Amy’s Pomeroon Foods Inc. was also presented with an award for introducing advanced technology to process and market ground Pomeroon coffee in superior quality packaging.
The main award, the Executive President’s Award for Export Achievement, was bestowed upon New GPC Inc, for rapidly expanding overseas markets for Limacol, Ferrol Compound and Nutrophos Nerve Tonic.
The GMSA President’s Award was presented to Guyana Colorete Inc for attaining international certification and accelerating cross border trade with modern, innovative building materials made in Guyana. This company is a major producer of paints, thin set and grout. It serves local and regional markets. Just this year, it was able to penetrate the Suriname and Trinidadian markets with two of its most popular products—Thin set and Hiperbond.
Two lifetime achievements were also given out, one to Sattaur A. Gafoor for the second time. This was noted to be a history-making moment in Guyana’s manufacturing sector as he was the first to attain the award for the second consecutive year.
Gafoor, the Captain of the mega-chain called simply Gafoors, is a consummate entrepreneur and has also become one of the most dependable philanthropists in the business sector. He contributes to the educational advancement and social development of a wide assortment of people, particularly his employees.
Mr. Gafoor was described by the moderator as a man of high moral turpitude who has always been invested in the growth and development of his own enterprise and in the institutions that comprise the manufacturing and distribution landscape in Guyana.
Graham revealed to the attentive audience that the entrepreneur served as President of the GMA around 1999 and together with his fellow Lifetime Awardee, Norman McLean, initiated the first Business Expo at Sophia. He takes his responsibilities as a corporate citizen very seriously and goes beyond the call to give back to communities.
Graham stated that this is what gives Gafoor satisfaction. The businessman was honoured for consistently fostering the growth of the Manufacturing sector with his strong pioneering spirit and philanthropy.
Mc Lean who serves as the current GMSA President was celebrated in like manner for serving the GMSA with distinction for over 25 years including four terms as President.
The GMSA’s 2015/2016 Board of Directors elected Major General (rtd.) McLean as its President at the last Annual General Meeting. This is his fourth time as President of the Association. He had led the Association for three terms in the 1990’s before it adopted the Services sub-sector in 2006.
McLean brought to the GMSA considerable experience in human resource development and Organizational Management. He is a retired Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force, and the retired Human Resource Director and general factotum of the now defunct Omai Gold Mines.
He also consults with ETK Sand Springs, an expatriate gold and mineral mining company that is preparing to start up operations in Guyana.
In his numerous capacities, he has been a strong pillar for the GMSA. In his own inimitable way, he has fostered numerous programmes and implemented many procedures, some of which it still uses today.