— entrepreneur shares story of acquiring environmentally-friendly brand

IN January 2016, when Mohamed Nashad Faizoul became a distributor for the Eco Pak line of products, launched by Caribbean Containers Inc. (CCI), it was a bit more than a stone’s throw away from his original business concept. In fact, the young entrepreneur, like many others, had already decided to pursue business in the agriculture sector, but this dream was quickly quashed when he realised that he lacked all the necessary resources. In fact, he revealed, in an interview with this monthly publication, not only was he short of the financial resources to go into agriculture, but he lacked physical resources like land as well. As a result of this, when CCI announced that it wanted to sell its line brand of Eco Pak biodegradable food containers in 2016, Faizoul immediately jumped on the idea. He explained that he was one of the first persons to join the initiative to become a distributor for Eco Pak, as the opportunity came just a few months after the previous Government had instituted the ban on Styrofoam and the products thereof.

“When the Government had announced the ban on Styrofoam, I was looking for an opportunity to start a business; and that is how it led me to go into the biodegradable food containers. I started by taking samples from Caribbean Containers, and I have driven around the country doing marketing, myself.
“And from, you know, displaying and showcasing and educating the restaurants and supermarkets and so forth, I started to get orders. And as I started to get orders, that’s when I decided, in 2016, to take over the line brand from CCI,” the entrepreneur related.
According to Faizoul, CCI did not want to ‘run with’ the Eco Pak line anymore, which gave him scope to take over the distribution. From there, his aim was to use the pegasse-based products to begin making a change in the environment.

ECO-FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT
“When I first took over, I wanted to have more of an eco-friendly environment. That was my purpose. Then, to increase, and to diversify into other types of eco-friendly products. I think I have achieved that to some extent, because places, for example, I see now… the Guyana Marriott, they’re using strictly biodegradable and eco-friendly packaging. Down to the bags they’re using… paper bags, instead of plastic bags,” he said. He also listed organisations such as Bounty Supermarket, Cara Lodge Hotel, the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) as using the biodegradable food containers, noting that the products caught on with both public and private entities.
He recalled the need to keep in constant contact with persons during the start-up phase, and to have products on hand to ensure that his supply could meet the demands of his customers. After buying most of the products that CCI had remaining, Faizoul began to import similar products from China via containers.
“I started with a million dollars from CCI when I took over from them. There were roughly about $10M in products. I had to pay them roughly $1M a month as I sold, but there was no cut-off line on how many products I could take from them per month. I learned about the Small Business Bureau, and I had approached them, and I had gotten finances through the Small Business Bureau, at Republic Bank.

FIRST CONTAINER
“That is when I brought in my first container, in May of 2016. It was a long-term idea, because in the first five months when I started, I wanted to carry it on. After the first five months is when I realised I wanted to push it for long-term. It got recognition on social media, and I started building a customer base,” Faizoul shared.
“So, from January of 2016, I have been doing that business since then, and I have opened an outlet on the Essequibo Coast. In late 2019, I had started with sanitiser products, and sanitiser dispensers, and so forth. Eventually, I have started with doing non-woven shopping bags and gift bags. And then, I have increased the sanitising with dispensers; that’s paper towels, toilet paper, all the types of dispensers; and in doing so, in 2021—that’s this year—I have opened another outlet in February, in Kingston, Georgetown.”

The young man shared his belief that ‘green products’ such as the Eco Pak line, as well as his sanitising products and dispensers, will help the people of Guyana greatly, since people are more health conscious due to the fear of contracting COVID-19. He underlined his belief that even though COVID-19 may be phased out within the next few years, persons would still exercise caution, and the increased sense of hygiene would continue to prevail. When asked what his most unique products were, Faizoul listed the Eco Pak line and the sanitiser dispensers, stating of the former: “The benefit of Eco Pak products is that it’s more environmentally-friendly. It doesn’t harm the environment. It’s biodegradable, so over time it doesn’t stay. It just breaks down again into something that can be used to help the earth.” Mohamed Nashad Faizoul is the proprietor of Supreme Distributors, as well as N&K Investments, Guyana. The Eco Pak products consist of bio-degradable table wares, including bowls, boxes and cups, which are all environmentally-friendly products because of the materials and the process utilised to manufacture them.