By Leiselle Maraj Thursday, September 17 2009

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For Riad Shakeer, 59, managing director of Calypso Marine Canvas Limited, it is not business as usual, especially after the company won the Prime Minister’s 2008 Rookie of the Year award.

“The way things were going was the norm, you open in the morning, do what you have to do and you close, but now we want to do a little more, we want to look at getting more equipment in and more machinery,” he said in an interview with Business Day last week following the announcement at the Prime Minister’s Residence and Diplomatic Centre, St Anns that his company copped the rookie award.

The award, he said, is a boost to the company. “It is like the flame that just lit again for us to move ahead again, to achieve more and this is why we appreciate the award. It is going to be the energy behind the company to propel us to move further ahead,” he said.

Calypso Marine started 25 years ago but before this rookie award it had been winning recognition on the international scene, copping awards between 2002-2005 for its work in marine upholstery and interior fabric products.

The company was borne out of the family-owned and operated upholstery business, Shakeer and Sons, which he joined in 1966. Back then, the focus was on automotive upholstery but this portfolio soon grew to providing upholstery for residential furniture.

When his father died in 1972, Shakeer and his brother Fuad continued the business. Four years later, the brothers met Brian Bowen, a pioneer in the boating industry in Trinidad and after seeing their work in providing car racing seats, Bowen hired them to provide upholstered seats for his line of pirogues.

In 1990 Shakeer decided to move the marine division to Chaguaramas to capitalise on the growing yacht industry. He took his obsession for racing on land to racing at sea, his boat Rage is known in the racing circuit and won the Great Race competition in 2006 and he placed second this year after Mr Solo. Many of his fellow racers belonging to the Powerboat Association have cockpits and upholstery done by his company.

Shakeer described his company as the pioneers of marine canvas and upholstery in Trinidad and has watched his business grow with the yachting industry over the years. Now based at Peake’s compound in Chaguaramas for about 13 years, his company has cornered the local manufacturing of boat interiors. “When we started at the Yacht Club, there was not this influx of yachts in Trinidad. People used to come in for Carnival, chartered yachts, and just two or three might come in for Carnival,” he said.

At that time, he said larger boats shipped their enclosures and boat canvas from Miami. However, Shakeer began researching the field, looking at the different kinds of materials used in the marine industry.

In pursuit of the dealership for the Sunbrella acrylic canvas, manufactured by Glen Raven Mills out of North Carolina in the US, he was introduced to the Industrial Fabric Association International(IFAI) which opened the doors to several lucrative dealerships. Fast-forward to the present. Calypso Marine has become the leader in the marine canvas industry in the Caribbean, specialising in the manufacture of bimini tops and dodgers(both protective coverings), awnings, sail covers, boat covers and enclosures and customised interior design. Since 1998, the company became the authorised distributor of big brand names - Sunbrella Marine Canvas, Lenzip Marine Grade Zippers, 303 High Tech Fabric Guard, among others, - for the local and regional market.

Shakeer pointed out that the company’s market goes beyond the Caribbean as he services yachties from South Africa, France, Israel and even Australia.

ROOKIE from Page 3



“One of the things that is as encouraging as the awards is reading about your company in foreign magazines,” citing a German magazine which featured his company.

Over the years, Shakeer has seen the industry go from a few yachts during the Carnival season to around two to three thousand boats, which sail to Trinidad during the hurricane season. Companies providing service, catering to these yachts also grew with this number.

“The industry has grown from when we left the Yacht Club, mainly because of the type of work people get in Trinidad and the type of services they get here and also we are just below the hurricane belt. The yachts started coming regularly in the last 12-14 years and the money is spread across the board. “

“You can get anything you want flown into Trinidad, we offer service that they could only get here, starting from bottom to top of the boat and the interior,” he said.

Despite competition, Shakeer said business has been sustained over the years. “I cannot service everybody,” he said, noting that this business depends on repeat customers to survive.

Government, he added, has also been instrumental in the development of the industry but now it needs help. He suggested that VAT be removed on items the company brings in. “I am still growing and I would like to bring in more equipment and items,” he said.

A labour shortage though now plagues the industry, he said. “In any service-oriented business we have to train people to do the specialised work.

Trinidad does not have the people trained in this particular field and we do not want to bring in labour from outside, we want to train our own people,” he said. Shakeer suggested that government consider training persons in certain yacht related services at the University of Trinidad and Tobago, Maritime Campus in Chaguaramas.

He said Government could set up a facility where people could be trained in both theory and practice. “I am willing to have the practical stuff done at my shop so we could get people certified and I will be willing to hire these people. I think across the board companies are willing to do the same,” he said.

He expects that within the next two to three years the economy will recover and this sector could help diversify the yachting sector.

“Yachts are not coming in as before and those coming are not spending the money to do services right now on interiors as they used to,” he said. “They will not spend money, they will stretch work until the last. We can’t make the earnings which we made last year but we are going to keep everyone,” he said.

His strategy for surviving the slowdown is to keep abreast of what was happening in the world in terms of the latest in fabric and technology in the global marine industry.

It also includes working on international yachts during the peak or hurricane season, year round work from the local boating industry and boats kept for long term storage. Outside of the industry, Shakeer has the Calypso Fabric Architecture Limited(CFA) which designs, manufactures and installs tensile fabric structures for external and internal use.

The company also supplies fixed and retractable awnings, retractable awnings, retractable blinds, canopies and umbrellas. Work done includes tent-like structures constructed at the Norman Manley airport in Jamaica, Zanzibar restaurant in Curacao, some commercial buildings in Grenada and in other Caribbean islands. Locally, CFA’s work is featured at the Gulf City Mall in Lowlands, Tobago, on the rooftop of the Zen nightclub, Crews Inn Restaurant, Chaguaramas, the UTT campus in Arima and at the Aura bar in Port-of-Spain among other projects.