Lensyl: When foam rules

More than forty years ago, Lenny and Sylvia Lall started manufacturing spring mattresses under their home in Curepe on 3,200 square feet of land. They never dreamed that one day their tiny family business, comprising a mere five employees, would expand into a regional company competing against major players. Lensyl Products Limited, a leader in the foam manufacturing industry, showed that it can go up against the best by copping  the 2003 Excellence in Business Awards. In 2001, Lensyl also walked away with the Exporter of the Year Award for Quality in Household products. Now located at the Western Industrial Estate, Macoya, with a production space of 120,000 square feet and a staff of 170 persons, Lensyl has become a leading manufacturer in five product categories, namely flexible polyurethane foam, foam and spring filled mattresses and divans, soft furnishings, fully upholstered furniture and designer metal headboards. Lensyl is also responsible for the BedQuarters retail chain, which presently comprises five outlets located in Trincity, Port-of-Spain, St James and Chaguanas. Although Lenny and Sylvia are no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the company, their son Robert, holds the title of Executive Chairman. However, it is company CEO, Clive Annandsingh, who came to Lensyl in August of this year and Marketing Manager, Judith Young-Ruiz, who stand poised to take the company into the future.

Annandsingh had previously spent 22 years at Johnson and Johnson, before retiring from his position of Regional Financial Director for the Caribbean and TT. He was called out of retirement to take up his position of CEO at Lensyl. “I thought this was a way of giving something back to the local enterprise in Trinidad,” he said, adding, “I can get involved with a small local manufacturing company and run it along my dream and vision for manufacturing in Trinidad.” Young-Ruiz joined Lensyl in 1998 after leaving Republic Bank after 20 years, fifteen of which were spent in the Marketing department. “I wanted to get out of service management and into product management,” she said, “so I came to Lensyl.” She left the company after three years to open her own business, but eventually returned, a move which she does not regret. She said, “I made a very good choice in terms of understanding marketing from a product perspective. Not only is Lensyl a manufacturer, but it is also a wholesaler, retailer and distributor.” “So in terms of all the areas of business I wanted exposure to this medium-sized company gave it to me. The experience is by far greater than what I believe I would have gotten in any other company,” she said. Speaking from the company’s Macoya headquarters, Annandsingh noted that copping the title of Excellence in Business would afford the company some well needed exposure.

He said, “we could spend a lot of money in advertising and sales promotion, which we do, but getting such national exposure from this and letting the consumers out there know that we produce high quality products is very good advertising for the company in itself.” Lensyl has gained more than 27 years of foam manufacturing experience, being the only company in the region to offer its customers varying types and densities of foam. These include flexible polyurethane Durafoam, Durabonded, co-polymer flame retardant and high resiliency foam. It is also the only company known for quality consistency in foam manufacture and processing and the recycling of its waste into useable products. The company’s soft furnishing department has allowed it to be competitive in the hospitality industry, becoming a single supplier to hotels and guesthouses. Their line of soft furnishings include quilted bed spreads, mattress covers, mattress protectors and brands of pillow, specifically Fossfill, Daisy and Goofie. In 1996, Lensyl began manufacturing its line of fully upholstered furniture, eventually becoming a major supplier to the Courts chain of furniture stores throughout the Caricom region. Now, Annandsingh aims to take the company’s product line into Latin America, as well as to Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo and Cuba. “Within the next five years,” he revealed, “we expect to have our exports doing at least 50 to 60 percent of the top line. In this way we diversify our risks.” “We also need to come up with more innovative products and relocate from our present facilities where there is no more room for expansion,” he added.

Annandsingh was highly critical of what he called the Government’s lack of support for the light manufacturing industry. “In Trinidad,” he stated, “the bulk of the Government’s time and energy is spent on the energy-based, petrochemical sector of the economy and light manufacturers have to fight for themselves in terms of infrastructure and the development of extra-Caricom markets.” And with the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) supposedly looming on the horizon, local manufacturers have a lot of catching up to do if they want to remain competitive, Annandsingh said. He noted that while the United States had been one of the region’s competitors for a number of years, the real threat was in the form of the Latin American countries, which he asserted “will eat our breakfast and dinner.” “These guys,” Annandsingh maintained, “have been taught from early on that the only way they can survive is through export. So they are ready for the FTAA.” “I don’t think that many companies in TT are ready for the FTAA,” he continued. “But it is a challenge and I believe that the business community will rise to it. It will be very difficult and I am not even sure that the Government is prepared to assist the business community in meeting that challenge.”