CANE GARDEN, ST THOMAS manufacturer L & N Workshop Inc. is reporting brighter days amidst the current economic turmoil.
“We are seeing an upsurge in work in the last few weeks. People are spending a little more and many companies are now trying to get their fleet up to scratch,” Norman Edwards, managing director of the bus and truck body manufacturing company, told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY.
Edwards acquired the former Acme Manufacturing company ten years ago and says he is beginning to see growth after “some rough years” at the outset.
Though the last three years have been generally “difficult”, the managing director said L & N had managed to expand its operation and as a result, had seen four per cent growth in business, with 2009-2010 being “a good year” with “a steady flow of work”.
The workshop located in the Cane Garden Industrial Park manufactures and refurbishes buses and trucks.
The Government-operated Transport Board has been one of its main customers and Edwards said his company had refurbished more than 300 buses in the Transport Board’s fleet over his ten years of operation, while minibus owners were also bringing their vehicles to be rebuilt or restored.
Private and public sector-owned bus bodies are also being built by L & N with recent emphasis on the ISUZU?brand being built in collaboration with Simpson Motors.
In addition, the company has embarked on a project to manufacture mobile canteens complete with bathroom facilities.
The recent upturn in business has resulted in Edwards’ re-employing nine of the ten workers he had laid off, bringing his current staff complement close to 50.
L & N Workshop Inc. is one of the indigenous businesses the Barbados Manufacturers’ Association encouraged last week to open its doors for a public open day to showcase its work. (GC)
