The company first opened for business in November of 1996, in an historic building that originally housed second World War American military equipment. Robbie Ferron, founder of Budget Marine, says: “The first goals for the company were small, but growth was fast and over the years in these premises there were almost always changes to the interior or expansions being executed. At a certain point however, it was necessary to opt for a new structure.” Budget Marine Trinidad director, John Skinner continues: “So in 2002, with the same confidence that we entered into a joint venture with the Budget Marine Group in 1996 for a yacht chandlery in Trinidad, the Skinner family moved ahead with the design and construction of a greatly expanded, purpose-built facility.

Ideally located in Chaguaramas in the heart of the yachting industry, this new store further enhanced Trinidad as a major service orientated yachting destination of which we are proud.” In the new two-storey building, with its 4800 square foot sales floor, large warehouse and generous office space, the product range was expanded and service raised to a new level. Improvements have included the installation of a dinghy dock for easy access from the water, linking up with local contractors to ensure aftersales technical support, construction of a mezzanine floor to better utilise retail space, setting up a state of the art Awlmix Mixing Bank and having an experienced travelling product manager reach out to customers beyond Chaguaramas. Earlier this year Budget Marine opened a satellite store at the Trinidad & Tobago Yacht Club to provide convenient access for members and a way for customers to avoid the Western Main Road traffic congestion.

Despite challenges such as the downturn in world economy, which reduced the visiting boats that were the basis for the company’s initial growth, by diversifying and focusing attention on the needs of local boat owners, commercial marine companies and organisations, Budget Marine Trinidad has maintained its hard-earned position as a mover and shaker in the Chaguaramas business community and second busiest store in the Budget Marine Group.

Long term relationships with loyal customers over the past 20 years have been key to the store’s success and management sincerely thanks these individuals and companies. Donald Stollmeyer, director of Power Boats, one of Trinidad’s largest boat yards says: “It is always a pleasure to visit the Budget Marine store. The staff is welcoming and knowledgeable and the range of marine items offered is unequalled. Our boat yard will continue to depend heavily on Budget Marine to supply our customers with their chandlery needs. We look forward to another 20 years of excellence!” The core group of young staff members that started in the old rented premises have developed into the current management backbone of Budget Marine Trinidad, as well as a Group Service management team based at the Trinidad facility who support 13 Budget Marine locations Caribbean- wide in terms of accounting, business procedures and IT. Store Manager Risa Hall Lequay says: “I feel privileged to have been part of this organisation for the past 17 years.

The cast includes Richard Ragoobarsingh, Nikki Crosby, Cecilia Salazar and Aaron Schneider in this funfilled comedy.

RS Productions and RR Productions are two theatrical production companies that have been existent for approximately 28 years.

Between them over quarter of a century of work has been produced, as varied as Run For Yuh Wife to the dramatic The Stranger, which looked at a murder accused on the run and ending up at a lonely house in Wallerfield.

From critically internationally acclaimed plays such as Doubt by John Patrick Shanley to the critically and box office acclaimed Mary Could Dance by Richard Ragoobarsingh.

The play takes a revealing and hysterically funny look at the relationships between two married couples. It is stock full of surprises, from chasing bandits to recanting past sexual indiscretions. It is directed by Richard Ragoobarsingh and Debra Boucaud Mason.

For more info call 624 1284/338-6024 or 744-7581.

That’s all about to change though when LH receives the award for “Internationally Known…TT Owned Company of the Year” this Saturday (November 12) during the 2016 “Champions of Business” awards, hosted by the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce (Chamber) at Hyatt Regency, Portof- Spain.

Now in its 12th year, the award ceremony honours some of this country’s “finest business minds; both accomplished and emerging, (for) excellence in business performance and philanthropic practices,” the Chamber stated.

LH began 38 years ago, in 1978, as a Flexo-Graphic label converter for the beverage and brewery industry.

As stated on its website, in 1989 the company set up Digi Signs Limited to provide a full range of Quality Signs and related services.

It later set up Visual Solutions Limited to produce large format print, Package House Limited to sell equipment, supplies and services and Jemila Electronic Displays to sell and service indoor and outdoor LED signs.

In 2003, the Label House Group (LH) was formed by an amalgamation of all of its companies as a single company selling and servicing all of the Group’s products and services.

The following year, LH “pioneered the production of sleeves in the Caribbean market (while) in 2006 LH started a joint venture called Click Media TT Limited which is designed to promote brands.

LH now exports its products to more than 25 countries servicing beverage, brewery, tobacco, petroleum, personal care, household, liquor, and banking industries.

Business Day (BD) recently spoke with founder and CEO of LH, David Lewis (DL), to find out what he thinks is responsible for the company’s success.

The following is a transcript of that interview:

BD: What about LH do you think earned it this prestigious award?

DL: At first we were very surprised, especially when you do not set out to get an award but it’s bestowed on you. It makes us feel we earned it through the Group’s dedicated focus on our customers, both regionally and locally.

BD: What does winning this award mean to you?

DL: It proves that we are a multinational business and this is now verified. Our customers and suppliers and employees are overjoyed, yet we are humbled. We will be 40 years in business (in 2018), so this award proves our motto of “Yes We Can”.

BD: How does being named the “Internationally Known…TT Owned Company of the Year” winner impact your business?

DL: We consider ourselves to be truly multinational, after all, we service 20 multinational customer businesses in 16 countries in five languages. It’s the first time we earned this title, but now it’s more than verified. Our history has evolved interestingly to have come to this point, and this award will help to boost our customers’ confidence in Label House Group.

BD: Would you describe LH as a family-owned company? If yes, which of your family members helped to found it in 1978?

DL: I am the founder, with my father Mervyn Lewis being the first investor. Then after ten years many family members joined the Group. My two brothers are still with the company today. Richard is the executive chairman and Mark is the lead director in our signs and branding business. We now have my son Shane and nephew Ryan creating succession. Yes, it’s always been a family company.

BD: What’s been the key to LH’s success over the years, particularly as it expanded into services such as large format print, and indoor and outdoor LED signs?

DL: In the region, we built strong relationship with blue chip customers. Our focus on quality innovation, investing in cutting edge technology and using IT to better run our company, together providing excellent service have been the key to our success.

We get to experience how huge global companies operate and how regional companies compete for market share. The brand owners and entrepreneurs of the region have taught us a lot. Many of my mentors and friends have been my customers. Our suppliers are very global and they have been very instrumental in allowing us to exist in the very volatile market over the years.

Our expansion into the branding division for indoor and outdoor signage, as well as for digital marketing has allowed us to offer our customers a One Stop Shop and total solutions partner. No other regional company offers such a holistic combination of products and services.

BD: How challenging has it been doing business over the last two or three years, as the availability of foreign exchange (forex) has declined?

DL: It’s very distracting. And sometimes embarrassing to tell suppliers when you have not the currency to pay. But we are exporting for nearly 30 years so we do earn our currency. We are in the queue like everyone else. It does tell us that we cannot access capital for investments that easily. It tells us to watch every cent we spend and earn in foreign currency. It’s also a great opportunity to see how local customers turn to local suppliers to save on currency. This is good news for our growth.

BD: What other challenges has LH faced over the years and how have you overcome them?

DL: Entering new markets.
Markets not performing. Currency devaluation in the region. Natural disasters. Products not performing.
Competition from all over the world intensifying. The cost of logistics.
We overcame mostly because of market diversification and product development. Who would have thought bottled water would be so huge? We are now in flexible packaging. Our branding division is a fantastic investment and complements our packaging. Our machine division has created very important markets for us.

BD: How long after LH was established did you export your first product? What was it and to which company/client in which country was it shipped?

DL: It was ten years after we started. We began close to home.
First to Grenada, followed by Barbados. The labels were for condiments and sauces, then beer labels. Then we went all the way to Belize and virtually every island back down to Guyana and Suriname.
Amazing experience! Everywhere except Cuba.

: Whose vision was it to expand beyond TT’s borders and why did they think this was necessary?

DL: The decision to expand to new markets was a family decision.
The regional market, as we called it “The Pond” consisted of 25 million persons in the Caribbean basin consuming the same FMCG products which were produced in each island. There was a wave of new packaging development with PET and we followed it with 12 Coca Cola bottlers and their regional competitors. Plastic bottles with labels created a huge surge for our export markets.

BD: Do you agree with President of the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association (TTMA), Dr Rolph Balgobin, that manufacturers are the key to TT earning more forex from new sources and that doing so requires local manufacturers to produce export-ready products? If yes, why? If no, why not?

DL: Yes, I agree. He knows very well that we have been talking for 30 years about diversification away from oil and gas. We are big supporters of the TTMA vision and mission and believe that this group will be the next leading wave of business in the region. The need for labels and packaging is growing as the majority of our customers are entering regional markets and competing against products normally imported from the Far East and the North and South Americas. We need to show the regional governments the critical nature of manufacturing in every country to employ people and teach them skills and become more like Label House, a globally known company.

BD: What are your top five regional markets, top five international markets, top five sellers, top five TT clients (latter by category)?

DL: I guess you want to know all of our secrets. Look at it this way.
The demographic is from Belize in Central America to Suriname in the south and all countries in between except Cuba. The top five are based on demographics so you can work that out. In Trinidad you pick the biggest consumer brands and we are their suppliers. When you walk the supermarkets in the Caribbean you will be proud to see our packaging everywhere. That’s what make us internationally known.

BD: Anything you would like to add?

DL: It a very tough business. It’s not huge profits as many people think. It’s highly capital intensive. It requires cutting edge investments.
It’s dependent on many, many issues in the retail and manufacturing environments. We are following a massive group of customers. We look forward to the next 50 years.
Our group is now re branding itself and will continue to bring amazing products and services to the region in years to come.

“You are going to witness a return of larger and larger numbers of Caribbean peoples back to the region, and significant numbers of Hispanics back to Latin America.

In the context of a massive migration out of Eastern Europe into the US, we are going to witness in the next year or two the changing demographics there,” Sir Hilary said.

This will have an adverse impact on the global economy, he added, saying, “We are going to see the deepening of the world recession, because three quarters of humanity will assume that the US no longer possess the moral authority to direct the world.” Addressing a online forum yesterday on, “The Caribbean say on the US today” at the UWI Regional Headquarters in Mona, Jamaica in the wake of Trump’s victory, Sir Hilary said that based on history, Trump’s victory was “entirely predictable and expected. As a humanist, an idealist…it was fearful.” On some important lessons to learn from the election result, Sir Hilary said, “I have no doubt we are going to see a political strategy that imagines North America as a centre of a reconstructed White global supremacy ideal.” The foundation has already been laid for a massive migration out of Europe into the US and North America, and with Trump’s migration policy, the re-migration of Non-Whites to their original homeland, he said. In modern history, Beckles said that this will be the third phase of such a migration, the first phase being that which led to the first phase, the construction of “Plantation America.” After the second phase, the emancipation of slavery during the middle of the 19th century, Sir Hilary said, the black community was on par to become a significant part of the society in terms of demographics.

“At emancipation the black community was about 40 to 50 percent of the overall population,” but a massive migration out of Europe to North America pushed back the Black community from a 50/50 potential to a ten percent of the population.

The millions of Europeans who went into North America after emancipation, he said, created the kind of structure that led to the Ku Klux Klan, the forcing of Black and native Americans off their lands, and the marginalisation of their communities that led to the rise of White supremacy in phase two.

“Phase three is going to come where we will see an even massive majority of migrants coming out of Europe driving the so-called Brown/Black alliance into an even smaller minority position,” he said.

A similar situation, he said, occurred when former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher took office in 1979. “That was the beginning of a net migration of Caribbean citizens out of Britain. I was one of those who left on a one-way ticket,” he said.

What the US elections has shown, Sir Hilary said, was that a large white unskilled working class, excluded by globalisation due to the rise of technology, responding to Trump’s rhetoric through ethnic solidarity. “They have responded to global exclusion through ethnic solidarity, the identical process has happened in Britain. The exact process has happened across Europe.

If you place Brexit and the US circumstances in the same context, you will see there is a preference for the past,” he said.

An 18-month bitter and acrimonious election campaign culminated in a shocking, resounding victory by Trump over pre-election favourite and former Secretary of State in the Obama Presidency, Hillary Clinton – the Democratic candidate.

During a High-Level Caribbean Forum, co-hosted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, last Wednesday, Imbert drew the ire of trade unionists and public sector workers when he said the Government removed the fuel subsidy by 15 percent three times since being elected into office, and there was no riot as yet. He added that because of this, he may very well remove the subsidy by another 15 percent.

Speaking in the Parliament, yesterday, during a motion to confirm the Provision of Taxes Order in the 2016 Budget, the minister referred to the widespread fallout from his comments, saying he “unreservedly apologised” for the indiscretion.

“Perhaps, Madam Speaker, before I go any further, this might be an opportune time,” he said in his preface to the debate on the motion.

“There a conference in Trinidad and Tobago last week designed to deal with the challenges facing Trinidad and Tobago and the economies of the Caribbean. During that conference, Madam Speaker, I made certain statements and on reflection and having reviewed and looked at the tape of the comments that I made and the manner in which I made them, I realised that this would have upset a lot of people and, therefore, I take this opportunity to unreservedly apologise to all affected,” Imbert told the House.

His apology elicited loud desk-thumping from members of the Opposition which caused the Speaker to intervene. House Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George first took aim at San Juan/Barataria MP Dr Fuad Khan, saying: “Member for San Juan/Barataria, I am on my legs. I just want to advise members that while desk-thumping is allowed, if it is excessively loud or excessively noisy, I can consider it disorderly. Please be guided accordingly.” Minutes later, following continued desk-thumping over Imbert’s apology, the Speaker again intervened.

“Members, just to advise that the Standing orders are going to be strictly enforced. We are here over a year now and everyone is supposed to understand the Standing Orders.” Imbert’s apology came as he dealt with several procedural matters arising out of the Budget, including confirmation of the Provisional Collection of Taxes Order, Customs Duty- Caribbean Common Market Amendment Order, Excise Duty (Alcoholic Beverages) Order and Excise Duty (Tobacco Products) Order.

He said the measures imposed in the Budget were meant to generate much-needed revenue as the Government grappled with an uncertain economic future. Imbert predicted that the Donald Trump ascent to the Presidency of the United States, which he regarded as an “unexpected development”, may do little to ease the situation.

“We are a political union, the OWTU, it is because of our political upbringings, our political positions we have taken on many issues that the country would have benefitted in the past and it is because of the political positions we will continue to take, the country will continue to benefit because of that,” Roget said.

“We are going to do all that is necessary to ensure that justice prevails and all of that outstanding negotiations are settled once and for all and I need not remind them that workers are voters,” he said, adding, “all we are asking for is to be treated fairly.” Roget continued, “In case of the Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Petrotrin) or wherever else, through the Industrial Relations Act, we are given the right to call strike action. We will effect strike action in the country if we did not get for the benefit of our members who contribute to the development of the country,” he said.

The outstanding negotiations are for the period 2011-2013 and 2012 -2014 and include such State enterprises as Petrotrin; National Petroleum; the University of the West Indies and the University of TT.

Roget was addressing the launch of the OWTU’s Union Week 2016, which takes place from November 9 to 18 and December 5 to 9, at the union’s Paramount Building headquarters, Circular Road, San Fernando yesterday. The Union Week is themed – “only through struggle will victory be achieved.” He noted that the OWTU’s membership, some 13,000 strong, spans the entire economy of TT, and work in such sectors as the oil industry, electricity, light and heavy manufacturing, fuel distribution, education, some sectors in health and in the hotel industry in Tobago. Union executives are expected to visit some 52 worksites during Union Week.

Earlier, SE A top achievers, Caitlin Brooker and Michael Beepath, received achievement plaques for their roles in the union’s 38th Annual Quiz Competition.

Both Brooker and Beepath placed first and second respectively in the 2016 SE A examinations.

“Her head was bashed in. A man came and told her son that they saw a body in a track. They went but couldn’t make her out because of the way the head was bashed in. They make her out by the body and run and get a sheet to cover her up because she was naked. It look like they even slit her throat,” Ragoobar said.

An autopsy was expected to be performed yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre, St James to determine the exact cause of death and whether or not the woman had been sexually assaulted.

Police investigating what is the nation’s 398th murder for this year, said they have seized a blood-stained piece of wood and a 37-year-old unemployed deportee remains in custody. The man, who relatives said grew up with Balgobin, was captured by villagers and held until police officers arrived.

According to a report, at about 5 am yesterday, Balgobin was making her way through a track near Walcott Street when she was approached by a man she knew.

Reports are that he attempted to rob her and a fight ensued during which time Balgobin was struck several times in the head.

Her body was discovered a short while later by a villager and an alarm was raised. Speaking to Newsday yesterday, a grieving Justin Balgobin, 19, of Ravine Sable, Longdenville said his mother did not deserve such a death.

“She never did anyone anything,” the teenager cried. “Only two days ago she told me she loved me. We didn’t live with her but she always visited us.” Justin said his mother’s death hurts him even more as the suspect, after allegedly committing the crime, returned to his home a short distance away and sat and ate a meal consisting of roti and pumpkin.

He added, “He was laughing and talking like normal. Imagine all the blood still on his clothes and he sit down on the steps of his home eating roti and pumpkin.

Is family members and other neighbours who confronted him and held him till the police came.” Justin said the suspect put up a fight with them but he couldn’t get away. Investigations are continuing.

How did this happen? What went “wrong”? In the campaign, Clinton was consistently rated ahead of Trump — at once even by a margin of 12 percent — and with an Election Day poll of polls giving her 46 percent to his 42 percent. Online betting odds highly favoured Clinton, at 0.2-to-1, with Trump at 4-to-1.

Yet pollsters and bookmakers proved to be spectacularly wrong.

Why? The data was seemingly echoed by events at ground level.

Despite beating 16 rivals in the Republican primaries, Trump looked unelectable and too mired to baggage from his serial insults to key demographic groups, namely women, Muslims and Mexicans.

Trepidation was also felt by Caribbean nationals in the US because of his ominous pronouncements on immigration.

Yet Trump tapped into the hidden frustration of the white working class yearning for a return of heavy industry from overseas back to rust-belt towns to fulfil his vow to “Make America Great Again”. He grabbed job-hungry “Reagan Democrats” in northeast states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan.

At Tuesday’s count, the Trump phenomenon resonated worldwide as big states went his way including the bellwether States of Ohio and Florida, the sudden shift causing a temporary drop in stock markets worldwide.

The election results will undergo keen analysis for a long time coming.

How did a man with no prior political experience beat his rival (Clinton), seen onstage with two past Presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama? How did a nominee win, despite his rejection by most of the hierarchy of his own party including two former Presidents, George Bush and George W Bush? How did a seemingly racist Trump win over an electorate that had twice before voted an African-American as President (Obama)? How did Trump get out the vote on Election Day without a full party machinery, with electors instead motivated by his personal charisma at three rallies a day in the days ahead of Election Day? In the end, Trump won by connecting with voters tired of the “same old, same old” of Washington DC politics, vowing an end to its business-as-usual mood. He roped in blue-collar workers who felt past neglect by the Democrats, in contrast to his promise of new jobs.

While his persona is rough around the edges, he has excused his gaffes as “showbiz stuff ”, with voters apparently preferring his political clean slate to the emailgate and pay-to-play scandals of former Secretary of State Clinton.

Pollsters and news stations must assess why they failed to predict Trump’s win.

One commentator on CNN (Cable News Network) belatedly on election night revealed the phenomenon of the “lean-in” voter, who does not talk to opinion pollsters but will lean in to tell you quietly that he/she is voting Trump. If so, this could echo the failure of pollsters to predict the Brexit vote, months ago, when a right-wing groundswell of voters went against media predictions and escaped detection.

Analysis of the Trump win must find out why voters were unwilling to tell pollsters their support for Trump. Was it because his public image was so tainted in the media that voters feared that if they expressed support for him they too would be dubbed racist, sexist and religiously bigoted? An analysis of the Trump win may in future be used to explain current political trends in other areas of the world.

Lord Reith founded the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the world’s largest broadcasting network and a foremost culture disseminator in the UK, if no longer the world. The broadcasters’ motto, often quoted by many, of the duty to inform, educate, entertain, was his and finds form in these annual lectures.

Appia, part Ghanaian and part English, educated in Ghana and Britain, a Cambridge graduate and former teacher at several US Ivy League universities, is now Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University.

In his four lectures that have just ended on BBC Radio, but available as podcasts, the Reith lecturer invites us to consider how we have come to construct our own individual identities and also have them thrust upon us. He believes that identities are not fate, although they may be conditioned by faith, and that we have to figure out what to do with them.

The world has become an increasingly dangerous place because of the erroneous assumptions that we make about one another’s identities, whether religious, racial, cultural or national. These ideas have become fundamentalist beliefs leading to Brexit and Trumpism that are dogmatic about nationalism as a way of preserving our identities.

In his first lecture on religion and how it shapes us, Prof Appia argues that religious texts have to be relevant and therefore open to interpretation if they are to continue to have believers.

That is why religious beliefs shift, at any one time finding a different focus, as in St Paul writing that women should cover their heads in church and men not, or in Islam where belief that women are inferior to men is derived from a single sentence, ignoring another part of the religious text and allowing for just the opposite, so that in some parts of the Islamic world women have held great political power, eg Pakistan and Bangladesh.

We are left to conclude that religion is as much about practice as it is about belief and is therefore in constant evolution.

Appia is adamant about the nonsense that is racial identity. We should all know by now, especially here in TT, that race is a social construct.

Genetic science has shown us that defining people by the colour of their skin or shape of their nose or size of their jaw or any other physical feature has no basis in science. In fact, there is more diversity among Africans from that continent where all human life started than among Africans and other ethnic groups.

Anyone of us who has lived in another country knows that there we represent not only our country but a “race”. In Japan or China a white, brown or black person is simply that, other. And, in the USA, black, white, Latino all take on a different meaning of “them” and “us”.

National identity that can be tied to religious identity, as in India or Israel, is a potent cocktail as it nearly always carries with it a racial identity.

Prof Appia argues that apart from causing wars, nationalism has eroded our everyday ability to be humane, stopping us from dealing with the current, huge refugee crisis, for example, because we feel that “those people” threaten our identity as much as our native culture and our living.

Donald Trump’s beliefs seem rooted in many of the moral and intellectual confusions Prof Appia identifies. What can anyone say except woe betide us all.

Visit: www.

b b c . c o . u k / programmes/ b00729d9/episodes/ downloads

“If that is the case, then we have to put measures in place for deportees coming to Trinidad and Tobago,” he told reporters. “It is up to us as a country to take the necessary action and put the measures in place to treat with them when they come into Trinidad and Tobago.” Trump, in the run up to the campaign, has taken a tough stand on immigrants, promising to bring measures to stem the flow to the US.

Dillon said the Government was already receiving advanced notice on the arrival of criminal deportees into the country. “We are getting advanced notice as to deportees from the United States. So, we know when they are coming and we do have some idea as to their records.” he said. The minister said information on deportees, generally, also was available.

“So, far, we get advanced notice.

But, we will seek to continue that kind of dialogue with the United States because it is important for us to be aware who has been deported and some idea of their records in Trinidad and not only with the US but Canada and the UK, whichever country of origin,” he said.

Dillon said the Government was adopting a wait-and-see approach to Trump’s impending stewardship as US President, particularly in relation to national security matters.

“We will look at the policies that would be enunciated by the new US Government in so far as not only their policies with respect to Trinidad and Tobago but I believe the wider Caribbean,” he said. “We had the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative under the last administration so that whether or not, we will continue along that vein or new initiatives.” Dillon said he did not expect the relationship between T&T and the US to change drastically over Trump’s four-year term. “Historically, we have always had that kind of relationship with the United States and from where I stand, I don’t see any reason why it should be curtailed, whatsoever, but again, we have to wait and see what the new Government’s policy will be like to see if there are any changes,” he said.