When President David Granger visited the Ruimveldt operations of the Brass Aluminium and Cast Iron Foundry more than a year ago he made a point of underscoring the importance of innovation in industry in pursuit of adapting to the needs of the Guyanese economy. He could hardly have been in a more appropriate place to do so. He pointed out at the time that BACIF had had to function in an environment that not only placed it in competition with rich industrialized countries but had also been required to function in a domestic environment where the continually changing landscape – like the ‘rise and fall’ of the bauxite industry – compelled the company to shift gears, to find innovative ways of creating new demand for the products in which it specializes.
It would hardly be surprising if BACIF makes a claim for being amongst the most innovative of companies ever to ‘set up shop’ in Guyana. Set to become sixty next year, BACIF have become past masters of responding to the critical needs of some of Guyana’s most important industries and two weeks ago we found the company’s representatives still seeking to market what it has to offer in the company of a number of other local manufacturers of a decidedly more recent vintage at the Guyana Trade and Investment Exhibition (GUYTIE) at the Marriott Hotel.
It is not difficult to tell that BACIF’s primary ‘selling point’ is its demonstrable endurance in the face of continually changing fortunes and its remarkable ability to adapt its production proficiency to suit the changes. When Stabroek Business stopped by the BACIF display on the penultimate day of the GUYTIE event, Yolanda Geddes-Kendall, a Director of the Company who ‘doubles’ in the position of Acting Commercial and Design Superintendent assured us that the company was ‘holding steady’ despite the small matter of having had to endure the damage done to its mainstream market by the travails of the Guyana Sugar Corporation. GUYSUCO, Geddes-Kendall told us used to account for around 75% of BACIF’s market.