– To introduce turn-key offices under its umbrella

EVEN as Nandalall and Sabrina Algoo continue to make waves in the local customs brokerage industry, the husband and wife business partners continue to credit their successes to their humble beginnings and say they remain committed to serving humanity.

The Algoos began their customs brokerage business from the back of their vehicle but have made rapid progress in growing the business over the years.
In their most recent move, the company, N&S Algoo Licensed Customs Brokerage Services Inc. has relocated its operations to Lot 165 Barr Street, Kitty in the building which once housed the popular New Thriving restaurant.

“We will call it our temporary corporate office because we have plans to return to our original corporate office in Kitty in another two to three years,” Sabrina Algoo said in an interview with Pepperpot Magazine on Thursday when they held a ‘soft opening’ at the new location.

With this being the tenth year of ‘Algoos’ as a corporate, the company outgrew its space owing to its remarkable growth. Hence the focus is now “to move with the times in having a modern office to accommodate the new customers entering the country,” Sabrina offered.

The new building being constructed at the original location will be a modern complex with five or more stories, and the team will be adding turn-key offices under its umbrella.
The complex, once completed, will see a hassle-free environment for transacting business, especially when it comes to parking. “We want to create a complex whereby parking will not be burdensome. Transacting business will be easy because we will be dedicating an entire flat for customer parking,” Sabrina shared.

Looking back on their accomplishments so far, she said she and her husband feel humbled, accomplished and blessed. Sharing a word of encouragement to budding young entrepreneurs, she said: “You have to love what you do, and you have to be careful and considerate of meeting obstacles in the way. Once you’re committed and have a positive mindset, you will be able to achieve.”

“I would advise any young budding entrepreneurs who would like to venture into the brokerage field to move with the times. Previously, brokers were not recognised as they are today. Having a broker’s license is very prestigious and adding an office has its advantages; anyone coming to do business here wants to see an established place,” she continued.

Meanwhile, Nandalall Algoo was one of seven persons who wrote and passed the Guyana Revenue Authority’s (GRA) broker exams in 2001, which had seen 75 candidates. As Nandalall had explained, although there may be many persons who are seasoned in the business, very few of them are licensed by GRA.

So having been successful at the exam, Nandalall kicked off single-handedly building his name in the customs business. In the meantime, his wife would assist him in the background in preparing invoices for his customers, among other things.

“The customers could not believe that we were operating from our vehicle,” she had said, and so she decided to quit her job in 2012 and join forces with her husband, after which they eventually acquired office space. Within just a short time, the business grew tremendously.

Their office at Public Road, Kitty, ran out of space to accommodate the number of staff members needed for the job, and the new branch office, at Public Road, Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara (WCD), was established to cater for their customers from the Essequibo Islands and from WCD.