By Wendella Davidson

WITH a recently-commissioned US$1B state-of-the-art bond at Diamond, East Bank Demerara, and government’s plan to build the Timehri-Ogle Road, the DDL Group is looking to the future with great optimism.

The road will allow for easy and quick access to markets, particularly on the East Coast and East Berbice.

Such an operation will benefit future investments of DDL such as renewable energy, said company chair Komal Samaroo, who was at the time speaking at the opening of the modern warehouse at Diamond.

According to Samaroo, the company plans to install a solar farm to power the entire Diamond operations. DSL is a subsidiary of the DDL Group.

DSL has several projects at various stages of implementation. Not far from the warehouse, a new modern blending plant is being constructed and is scheduled for completion later this year.

Major expansion works are ongoing to modernise the Demerara shipping port and office facilities, located at Water & Schumaker Streets, Georgetown.

Expansion works are also being undertaken at the Topco location, an operation Samaroo opined will create valuable linkages to the local agriculture sector.

Over the last 27 years, he said, DSL has been working to take Guyana’s best-known products to the world while bringing some of the best known products outside of Guyana to the local market.

GROWING DEMAND
DSL commenced operations in a very small building on Robb Street, Georgetown and from there, it moved to Water and Schumaker Streets. In 2001, the services relocated to Ruimveldt Industrial Site in response to the growing demand for space.

“DDL’s management has always been outward looking, constantly analysing threats and evaluating opportunities, while focusing internally on its internal strengths and weaknesses. It was out of this strategic planning process that it was realised that major changes were taking place in the international trading environment, as negotiations under the Uruguay Round of Trade talks were progressing.”

“We recognised that the preferential prices the market enjoyed by our core business at the time – bulk rum, would inevitably come to an end. We had planned to enter into the branded business but recognised at the time that it would have been a long hard road to success requiring a new skill set, new business culture, a stronger and longer organisation with stronger cash flows, and to support the advent into a very competitive international market place. It is out of these considerations that the company decided in the late 1980s, that it should embark on a diversification strategy,” he added.

The DDL executive chairman added that the company looked at new business ideas and opportunities at the time, and it established a number of criteria that would influence the areas they would enter into business.

PRUDENT MOVE
Having examined opportunities that would make the core business more competitive, Samaroo said the company moved to capture the waste Co2 which led to the production of carbonated beverages and non-alcoholic beverages.

The company’s waste streams were harnessed. The waste that comes out of the distillery was converted into methane gas. That gas replaced a significant portion of the heavy fuel being used for the generation of steam.

Samaroo said that this was a new skill set that the company needed to invest in, and how it provided adequate revenue streams for that skill set were examined. It was out of that process that the concept of DSL was born.

“We wanted to be a bigger, better player on the domestic market; to have a better understanding of and greater reach into that market, and to have a larger and better trained pool of sales distribution, trade marketing and brand marketing personnel. We thought of expanding into the import and export distribution business to provide us with a short-term support as we invest into the longer-term international market and development,” he added.

At this juncture of DSL’s growth, Samaroo said it has one of the most committed and motivated team of young professionals, in whose hands the company’s business has been entrusted.

DSL has 179 employees, 30 of whom are management and supervisory staff.