Currently in the eighth year of an entrepreneurial venture that had long been a passion, Andre Cummings is preoccupied with continually raising standards in the local wood products sector. What keeps him focused – apart from satisfying his own fixation with quality standards – are the demands of regional and United States markets that do not compromise on standards. In his line of business, Cummings says, the margin for error is frightfully small.
Cummings Wood Products, the older of two enterprises owned and operated by Cummings, was established in 2005. It was his first solo venture, as he had earlier been in partnership with a Barbadian businessman in an undertaking that pursued wood exports to Barbados. In a sense, Cummings Wood Products represented an upward step from the earlier initiative and today the company exports construction timber, decking, piles and squares to the United States and across the Caribbean.
The subsequent creation of Floor It in 2014, was Cummings says, a response to a niche in the local market. Domestic building had a considerable demand for properly seasoned, sawn and machined flooring and Floor It aimed unerringly at that market. As with the timber export market, Cummings says, Floor It sought to set the bar high. The company, he says, immediately recognized the value that properly kiln-dried flooring adds to a property. The concern, he says, was not simply with turning out properly prepared floors but in specializing in laying flooring, a pursuit which Cummings says, belongs in the realm of creativity.
Built incrementally over a relatively brief period, Floor It, according to Cummings, has made its own inroads into an expanding construction sector, an accomplishment which he says is attributable to the quality of product that the company has sought to offer.
The saw-milling and kiln-drying operations are located at Yarrow-kabra on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway while the finishing, machining, packaging for export and storage for export are done at Coverden on the East Bank Demerara.
And in announcing that Floor It was aiming to commence a door-making operation in 2017, Cummings says his success in marketing had been largely the result of his insistence on high standards. He told Stabroek Business that his company would provide potential customers with samples of floor material prior to undertaking a job after which the company would provide a guarantee based on the quality of the sample.
Asked to outline some of the key issues confronting manufacturers and exporters in the sector, Cummings says “quality and reliability” continued to rank high amongst the expectations of consumers in the sector and the local industry has not always been able to meet those expectations.
Floor It is a member of the National Wood Flooring of America (NWFA), an organization that offers technical assistance to its members in industry-accepted standards for hardwood flooring techniques including installation guidelines and sand and finish techniques. The NWFA also offers a variety of comprehensive technical manuals.
Cummings says membership of the NWFA serves as a rudder that keeps the company wedded to the highest standards. “The advantage of being a member of the NWFA is that you always know where the industry is heading,” Cummings says.
At the moment, the two enterprises employ a total of 46 staff and Cummings says the current focus is on offering guarantees. “We can guarantee our customers properly kiln-dried wood with a moisture content of 12-14 per cent,” Cummings says. Two kilns with a capacity 30,000 board feet are used in the drying process.
