Quality in everything we do!

Maura Leonardi

Trinidad and Tobago is located in the archipelago of the Lesser Antilles, north-east of Venezuela. The Caribbean Sea lies to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the east – an enviable geographic position that makes these two twin islands of the Caribbean a perfect tropical paradise. Its wealth of natural resources, which include natural gas and oil, together with the beauty of the landscapes make Trinidad and Tobago the most prosperous of the Caribbean Islands.

In addition to its natural resources such as gas and oil, its natural beauty is the island’s main tourist attraction. Trinidad is also home to Trinidad Tissues Limited, a company that has grown in the course of the years, consolidating itself in the Southern Caribbean as one of the main tissue converting and distribution companies.

FOUNDED IN 1978 BY BRIGLAL LUTCHMEESINGH, TRINIDAD TISSUES LIMITED IS TODAY HEADED BY KRISHNA LUTCHMEESINGH AND COUNTS ABOUT 300 EMPLOYEES. What make this company special are the care and dedication displayed by the Management, who carefully and wisely handles every aspect of production, intended not simply as a process but rather as veritable teamwork, where every single person constitutes an important, unique and determining element in the labor chain. This approach has given rise to a practise within the company of hanging signs containing slogans that remind people of safety in the workplace, integrity and honesty in relationships.

Honesty and integrity are the two values that form the cornerstone of the company’s entrepreneurial activity. Further, respect, trust and professional growth represent the core of the philosophy of this small empire that has allowed it to develop clear and long-lasting relationships with its suppliers, customers and employees in order to offer total quality.

For Trinidad Tissues limited, quality is the mantra that can be perceived in every corner of the company: from the offices to the production area, where slogans such as “Quality in Everything we do” and “Make Quality part of your life” are evident. These two eloquent phrases highlight how quality is the continuum that has allowed this Caribbean entrepreneurial entity to consolidate itself as one of the main producers in the Caribbean, offering a complete range of products aimed at satisfying the needs of the consumer and institutional segments.

THE AMPLE PRODUCT PORTFOLIO COMPRISES TWO CATEGORIES: PREMIUM (100% VIRGIN FIBER) AND STANDARD (75% VIRGIN FIBER AND 25% RECYCLED). The premium category includes the White Cloud brand that covers the entire product range (toilet rolls, kitchen towels, industrial rolls, facial tissue, etc.), while the standard category includes the brands Soft Weave, Soft’n Pretty, Tis-u, So Soft (toilet rolls and facial tissue), Capri, Gala, Soft Touch (toilet rolls) and So Dry (table napkins).

“Trinidad Tissues Limited is an industrial entity dedicated since its very beginning to the production and distribution – both locally and in the entire Caribbean archipelago – of tissue products. Initially, export product distribution was undertaken by a company outside the group and was mainly directed at two markets: Jamaica and Barbados. “Today, an internal department is dedicated to handling exports to 16 countries and 48 distributors”, proudly explains Krishna Lutchmeesingh, Executive Director.

“PRODUCTION BEGAN IN 1980 with a PCMC toilet roll converting line, still in operation today, and a 12-employee staff working from 7:30 AM until 4:00 PM. Today, about 300 people work two shifts, six days a week. We have two plants and have gone from a production space of 12,000 square feet (about 1,114 m2) to 170,000 square feet (15,800 m2) and 16 converting lines working at full capacity for the production of toilet rolls, kitchen towels, facial tissue, table napkins, industrial rolls, etc.”, continues Krishna Lutchmeesingh. Ever since it was founded, Trinidad Tissues Limited has had a clear, far reaching vision, focused on satisfying consumer needs by offering high quality products and with the aim of being the leader in its market category through superior level products and services. The company has a vision of creating and maintaining strong alliances with its suppliers and customers, actively supporting its employees, keeping abreast of the times supported by advanced technology and sustaining a safe and consciously active environmental policy.

“In the last 10 years, there has been a deliberate policy to grow in terms of technology and machinery, widening our product range from household items to the industrial segment, and starting a strong promotion and communication activity of our brands through public actions, such as donations, marketing campaigns in specialized trade magazines and promotional activity in various sales points”, says Dudnath Ramkessoon, Marketing Manager.

“A promotional activity which, together with the presence of our numerous brands, has allowed us to create and reinforce the company’s image. Today, we can boast a leadership position, not just in the local market, but in our growing region. Of course, in order to survive in the market, we must also maintain a high level of efficiency to cope in this very competitive environment”, underscores Ramkessoon.

FOR TRINIDAD TISSUES LIMITED, EFFICIENCY MEANS INVESTING IN TECHNOLOGY, increasing production capacity through innovative, highly automated machines capable of satisfying greater production requirements and reducing the time needed to manufacture a product. It is with this aim that a new converting line model Sincro 6.5 by Fabio Perini S.p.A., in-line with the Casmatic wrapper model CMW425, was acquired. The new system presently produces 2-ply white embossed toilet rolls, wrapped in packs that contain from a minimum of 2 rolls to a maximum of 24 rolls of all the brands. “Thanks to the new line, we have improved our technological level, increasing production by 50% with the aim of a further 50% increase. Packaging automation has constituted one of the fundamental innovations, because it has afforded us greater flexibility in packaging and a better quality and more pleasing aesthetic aspect of the final package. Efficiency and productivity are the two criteria that were adopted in the choice of new machinery, and these systems perfectly embody these two aspects. Today, monthly finished goods production is converted from approximately 1,500 MT of semi-finished hard rolls, converted as follows: 66% toilet rolls and kitchen towels, 9% table napkins, 2% facial tissue, 6% industrial products and 17% interfolded products,” informs Briglal Lutchmeesingh, Chairman and Managing Director.

Sixty-seven percent of production is aimed at the local market, while the remaining 33% is exported and distributed in Caricom. The latter market is divided into two main regions – the first comprises Jamaica, Barbados and Guyana and the other comprising the rest of Caricom. Caricom with its 15 countries and a population of about 7,000,000, represents a market with enormous potential for Trinidad Tissues Limited’s business development. The total quality objective is pursued through the entire company system, starting with internal personnel, trained through specific activities aimed at making it more sensitive to quality, passing through commercial partners and reaching customers who may certainly rely on an overall quality control system. This system guarantees immediate assistance at the point of sale where concerns of quality may arise.

“OUR MARKETING STRATEGY IS FOCUSED ON PROMOTING AND ENHANCING TOTAL QUALITY, improving both the products offered and the service, satisfying our customers in terms of price and product. The influx of products “made-in-USA” into our market, too, represents a stimulus to defend our market position and is a challenge to create new opportunities. For example, a winning market strategy was to sell the 4-premium-roll pack of 400 sheets each at the same price as the 6-standard-roll pack of 280 sheets each, placing greater emphasis on the premium product. “The positive results obtained in sales have confirmed the validity of our strategy,” states the Executive Director.

With a turnover of $20,000,000 USD and a local market share of 60% for toilet rolls, we can safely state that Trinidad Tissues Limited is a 100% total quality company!