A LITTLE MORE THAN five years ago, Deighton Henry and Christopher Cumberbatch were rivals.
Both were owners of fledgling tinting businesses that were located mere feet from each other in Kew Road, Bank Hall, St Michael. The competition was literally in each other’s backyard.
So the pair decided that the best way to wipe out the competition was to merge. So in 2011 they did just that, establishing Sun Shade Tinting Studio.
Located along Black Rock Main Road, the business specialises in automotive, commercial and residential tinting.
Because of very similar starts in the business, the partnership appeared destined to succeed.
Henry was practically born into a family of tinters. His uncle, Alvin Henry, of Thorpes, St James, was said to be one of the pioneers of tinting in Barbados in the early 1970s.
All the garages
“He basically had all the garages for himself and as time went on, other guys came into play. He taught all the guys in the family how to tint and when I was roughly 19 in 1998, I went to work for him,” Henry recounted during an interview with the DAILY NATION.
“I spent about four years working for him, learning the tricks of the trade and the dos and don’ts. He was a good mentor, and then eventually I branched off.”
It was also around 1998 when Cumberbatch was gaining much knowledge about tinting as well.
At that time he was employed by the Caribbean’s largest auto care retailer, which wanted to expand in that area. Along with a group of workers from Barbados, the company sent Cumberbatch to Germany to learn the skill. The former Alexandra School student spent another five years with that company before moving on.
But unlike Cumberbatch, who saw the potential of tinting as a viable business, 37-year-old Henry had doubts. So instead of taking the plunge, the St Michael native did it part-time while being employed as a merchandiser at a supermarket.
Took the plunge
However, not long after settling into sales, and after constant nudging from loyal customers, Henry made up his mind to cast all fear aside and take the plunge.
“I told myself, ‘Well, I making money for everybody, why not do something for myself’. I was still a little doubtful that this could support me and pay all of my bills, but eventually doing the part-time here and there, most of my customers started to encourage me and eventually I did the tinting full-time,” Henry said.
Self-employment was not as rosy as it might appear, both partners were quick to point out.
Initially, when they merged, the operation was based at Freeks Customz where they rented space but things were slow and they decided to move back to Kew Road at Cumberbatch’s house.
Operating from there, it got to the point where customers came at all hours of the night and, according to neighbours, inconvenienced their slumber.
So in 2013 Sun Shade was moved to the current location. Now, mostly through word of mouth, the operation has a steady clientele, with much of their business on the commercial end, Henry said.
“I know sometimes people think it is easier owning your own business but they don’t know that you have to put in a lot more time and hours than you would have to put in working for someone.
“But there is still a lot more joy working for yourself as opposed to people. There is sense of pride in doing my own thing and seeing that it can work and being successful,” Cumberbatch added.
“It has been a long time we have been doing this and it has come a long way since we first started it. I learnt a lot of different techniques [in Germany], then I came back and learned a lot of stuff from Deighton and in a lot of ways, he learned stuff from me. We have had our ups and downs but somehow we make it work.”
According to the two, what made them stand out from similar businesses was their ability to perform at the highest quality while keeping their prices competitive.
“Being that we have been in it so long, we have found a lot of ways to get our jobs to come out a lot cleaner and better,” Cumberbatch said.
“Our surroundings make a difference as well. It is not under a tree, in an open area and people also like that. People don’t like to know they go somewhere and they don’t feel safe or they don’t feel safe leaving their cars. We’ve never had any complaints of something missing from or problems with their cars,” he added.
“We have had some people who may go to someone cheaper but then the word spreads quickly that the quality of work is not up to par with ours. You don’t want to go get something cheap and then two, three months down the road, it mash up. As our motto states, we care about our customers so we try to give our customers the best quality service we can and make them happy.” (SDB Media)
