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Ba Industries notches top award

The 1995 Fiji Trade and Investment Boards Exporter of the Year is a Ba company that took advantage of a natural disaster and found a market niche for specialised materials.

Ba Industries Limited (BIL) - which manufactures nails, barbed wire and chain link fencing, rivets and panel pins and other construction products - was formed in 1974 after the devastation of Hurricane

Bebe which caused an acute shortage of building materials.

After grabbing a sizeable domestic mar ket, BIL started exporting to fully utilise its capacity.

After two consecutive years of winning the Exporter of the Year Awards in the Building and Industrial section, BIL was awarded the prime minister’s overall exporter of the year price in November.

Daksesh Patel (right) and Ankur Amin (centre) with their prizes. With them is Finance Minister Berenado Vunibobo

The company, which now exports half of its products, was the brainchild of Ba politi cian and businessman Vinod Patel, who is a co-director with his brothers, Arvin Patel and Umakant Patel.

Patel is best known for his chain of hardware shops Vinod Patel and Company, Tile Kingdom and Light City, and as former mayor of Ba. He is currently a National Federation Party representative in the Fiji parliament.

Company general manager Ankur Amin said the company was judged winner for its export excellence, rapid export sales growth and recent ISO 9000 certification giving it recognition as producing interna tional quality merchandise.

Exports began to New Zealand in 1980, but really began flourishing in 1991/1992.

BIL now exports to other Pacific Islands while still maintaining its New Zealand mar ket.

Although the company is eligible for special tariffs under the South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Co-opera tion Agreement (SPARTECA) programme, Amin said the company was not dependent on it.

He said the company was confident of helping Fiji become competitive on the

world market.

“We are confident that with our high ‘qualitivity’ - quality and productivity - we will be able to establish a good name for Fiji-made goods in developed countries,” he said.

The company’s policy is to continually seek improved excellence in areas of prod ucts and new markets.

“In the last few years BIL has been rapidly increasing its exports markets,”

Amin said.

“At the moment 50 per cent of total products are exported and this figure is likely to go up in the coming year.”

Amin said that there were a number of reasons for the company’s competitive edge both in the local and export markets.

“Our high productivity and commitment to quality has made our products very com petitive in the export market,” Amin said.

The company prides itself on the high productivity of the 35 employees and the high quality of the products and services.

Prompt customer service, competitive prices and ready availability of goods have resulted in an excellent reputation for relia bility.

Amin said all raw materials for manufac turing were procured from ISO 9000-certi fied and reputed mills from Australia and New Zealand.

Amin said the company’s excellent per formance and good reputation were a result of the company’s policy on training.

“We have on-going staff training,” he said.

“As part of our corporate policy, we have conducted various in-house workshops and on-the-job training sessions. Numerous employees have attended various training programmes to enhance our quality system and customer service,” Amin said.

The company is proud of not only exporting and thus adding to the country’s foreign exchange earnings, but contributing to the local economy.

“By producing goods to high standards and quality, we have made import substitu tion for wire and fencing products,” Amin said.

“We are a locally owned company which is investing in and expanding in this coun try, thereby generating employment and advancing the skills of locals.”

The factory is located at Ba, 25 kilome tres north of Fiji’s second port, Lautoka, in a steadily growing industrial area. The Patel brothers, who hail from Ba, estab lished a factory there to make use of local labour.

“The Ba location is quite suitable for our performance,” Amin said.

“We have selected and trained locals from Ba to produce high-quality goods which can compare with overseas manu facturers.” ■