Prominent businessman Ralph “Bizzy” Wiliams wants the money owed to his companies by both Government and the private sector.
And, he has hinted strongly that he is not afraid to take the entities that owe his companies money to court, to get what is rightfully his.
In a no-nonsense message at the annual Long Service Awards dinner and presentation of Williams Industries Inc. at Almond Bay, Hastings, Christ Church, the founder and chairman said while the group remained profitable, it needed to get a handle of its problems with receivables.
He identified both Government and the private sector as guilty parties, and said that receivables had become extremely difficult to collect as the major trading partners opted not to pay on time unless forced.
“I’ve never been in a court in Barbados except for speeding and I do not wish or look forward to ever having to do that. But, unfortunately, there are people who somehow come to the conclusion that they would not pay people for material received and services provided and expect to get away with it,” Williams said.
“I’m not talking about the government here alone, I’m talking about the private sector. Many private sector people, big companies that should know better, waste a lot of our time running after receivables when they could easily pay their bills on time . . . . We’re considering profit sharing and giving shares for long service [and] we must focus far more on cash received than on sales written. Employees will never accept IOU’s instead of cash when we repurchase shares or pay profit share and we should not be borrowing cash to satisfy either of these obligations.”
Since 1997, Williams Industries Inc. has been operating a model under which employees, who have worked with the company for specified lengths of time are added as shareholders.
On Wednesday night, it added 25 new shareholders who worked with the companies for 10 years.
Overall, 77 people received 146 250 company shares valued at $1 187 550 for long service.
The company founder said the total number of shares awarded to employees since the start of the scheme is 2 037 335, which is valued today at $16 543 160.20.
The company now has 523 shareholders in total. (WILLCOMM)
