Tyres Batteries Scooters and Family
Brothers Salim And Zaid Rahaman run Spice Isle Retreaders … and with a little help from their friends and extended family they probably run the most successful Tyre shop on Grenada.
The Company was formed by their father in 1983 and was known as Bobby’s Tyre’s on the Carenage. The boys recall growing up with tyres and playing with them all day, whilst Dad commenced the growth of an empire.
It appears that the bothers have complimentary skill sets. The younger Salim is the Managing Director. He studied Business Management and Marketing in the USA & was an intern with Merrill Lynch as a trainee stockbroker. His father asked him to come back to Grenada to help him in the business. He thought about it overnight and the next day he said “yes” he would give him 5 years equal to the same time his Father spent on him for his education. That was 20 years ago, now Salim with a knowing glint in his eye confides, “My Father knew exactly what he was doing when he invited me back to Grenada. He was much smarter than I was”
Older brother Zaid, studied diesel and gasoline engine technology, so his strong mechanical engineering background makes him a natural fit for understanding his role as the Operations Manager.
Salim observes “My skills are related to sourcing and dealing with the supply end of the business, whilst Zaid’s skills are related to customer care and operations.
“Our personalities are suited to what we do, which makes me better at what I do and he is better at what he does, so we both just naturally gravitated towards the areas we were interested in.
The Brothers, together with Salim’s wife, Aisha, have built a business that includes over 10,000 sq ft of space in their headquarters at Frequente, with additional branches at Green Bridge and Grenville.
The Brothers believe they are probably the leading importers of Tyres in Grenada, averaging around the importation of 20-30 containers per year, but they insist they are not too concerned about market share and much more concerned about how well they can treat & pay their 45 staff.
“We believe its more than a job as many employees who work with us we’ve grown up with: We know their parents their siblings their whole family, so we treat them with respect and offer them guidance when necessary as if they were members of our own family.
Salim illustrates his point by stating “For instance I had an employee the other day who was acting up… so I told him to go home and come back tomorrow with his wife. When he turned up with his wife the next day I told him what he had to start improving on in front of her. The guy had two young children and I did not want to fire him and then see him put his family in trouble who rely on his wages to keep the family.
So we act differently to other companies and when we say that our employees are like our family we mean it.
We give people the opportunity to correct their behavior and attitudes and encourage them to take their responsibilities seriously. We try to guide them in the right way.
Since talking to the same employee his attitude and work rate has improved greatly and we are very happy with his recent performances now.”
Zaid further illustrates the point by adding “Another example of how we operate is for instance when there is a big fete or party coming up at the weekend I will not pay them on the Friday but wait till the Monday to pay them so that they don’t blow all their money at once. That is something a parent might do. I would not pay them late but I will not pay them earlier either. So if the last Friday of the month comes early we will wait to the end of the actual month before we pay them. They don’t like it but they appreciate it when they still have money in their pockets”.
The level of concern the company demonstrates towards its staff appears to work fo all involved. However as expected there always remains challenges.
CHALLENGES
Managing Director Salim states: “Some products we import, do not yield big profits and other items bring in more profits but we have to take it all in our stride. We bring in both New and Used Tires but sometimes importing a container of used tires can backfire as the shipment may be poor quality, that means we could take a loss or barely cover expenses so that aspect is a bit of a lottery when dealing with used Tires, because we never know what precise quality we are going to receive.
Zaid adds “We try to anticipate what we will be needing in the future depending on what projects are going on. For instance we may bring in Tyres for a particular piece of heavy equipment for a crane or a tractor and when that project finishes we have tyres for that to accommodate them and that affects our storeroom capacity, it makes ordering more difficult. Whereas we used to stock 40 different tyre sizes, now that figure could be
equipment in stock so we end up having to keep it in our storeroom for years until we can sell it again.”
Other challenges we face are that people are bringing in all sorts of different vehicles from Japan that are not readily sold here … so that means we have to bring in a much broader range of tyres than we did before 120 different size tyres.
A Honda CRV for instance has 10 different sizes of tyres depending on the year of manufacture so we have to stock them all.
The Suzuki Grand Vitara has 7 different types of batteries that we have to stock.
Illustrating his fundamental knowledge of vehicles and the market place in which the company operates, Zaid continues
Tyres are the companies main business representing a sales split of around 60% new and 40% used Tyres, but they also sell Batteries and Scooters so trends in these markets have to be carefully monitored.”
“As far as the Scooters are concerned we actually checked out 10 different factories in china before we decided on the make CROX which is also sold in Europe. That was significant in our decision making process. European standards are high. We can get up to 45 scooters in a container but we do have to do some assembly when it gets here. Now we are selling less bikes but more parts. Our strength is that we are very good with after sales and parts. We want to be able to service every scooter we sell. We spend a lot of money on parts for our scooters. A scooter is not a wealthy purchase. The average person buying a scooter is a poor man so he needs serviceable parts to keep his machine on the road. We’ve been selling bikes now for about 4 years.”
Spice Isle Retreaders are also in the process of revisiting the law as it pertains to the tyre industry in Grenada and are working with the Grenada Bureau of Standards on this so that companies can only bring in used tyres that are unblemished.
Presently SIR only bring in Tyres that pass the standard for Europe and North America, so if it passes these standards, then they import. They refuse to bring in sub standard tyres to Grenada but others do. Thats why they remain keen to introduce better standards to the market.
“We see this initiative as vital to protect the customer and also our own Integrity & reputation as a business at the same time” states Zaid
Another area The Brothers feel needs to be looked at within the industry is the issue of duties facing different Caricom nations: Tyres are dutiable at 62% in Grenada. In Trinidad that duty is only 30 %
Who can do a job from within so that is something we are looking at for the future.
Our Parents are still great advisors to us even today and we look upon them as consultants we can always bounce ideas off. My Father Managing Director Salim proudly states “Myself and my brother believe in any thing that puts Grenada first.”
Brother Zaid reiterates, “We try to live in the principles of the lord, demonstrating to our staff and customers excellent Ethics, Values, & Fairness”.Salim adds, “If it were not for the mercy of God Almighty, for us striving to do what is right, I am convinced that we would not be where we are today and would not have experienced this level of success. Humans wake up everyday with a choice. and if we make the right choices in tune with our creator then we will be surely blessed. We try to make humanity better with our existence through the guidance of our Lord Almighty.
This is the story of Spice Isle Retreaders.
A story of Tyres, Scooters Batterries and Family.is that you are now creating a situation where competition from Trinidad can look at the Grenada market favorably and look to compete with our own home grown companies here, because we cannot compete on a level playing field with them, because of the huge differential in duties.”
The astute businessman continues:
“During recessions we always sell more used tyres than new, but in the fairly recent past there was an additional environmental tax placed on used tyres, which made them more expensive to the consumer, So… for the poor man who cannot afford a new tyre, a used tyre has now become more expensive.”
“We think it should have been the other way around and used tyres should have remained at the same cost and new tyres should have received the tax increase.
This strategy would ensure that the poor man in the street is not so adversely affected.” Salim wisely observes.
“As leaders, our information must be based on knowledge, and we like to think that’s what we bring to the market, an in depth knowledge of product and our market.”
CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP
“There are many things we do you will not know about … We give from the heart not from the head.” States Salim
“Between myself and my father we have served on the boards of many organizations such as The Grenada Bureau of Standards, The Grenada Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Rotary Club, Westmoreland School, NAWASA, GRENLEC, Grenada Manufacturers Association.
“We have built over 30 bus stands all over Grenada and initiated this nationwide practice.
“We maintain roundabouts in the area and we maintain the entire verge in the middle of the highway with no pomp or ceremony.
THE FUTURE
“My Father is a smart man and just like he got his children to run the company, we would like to see our children running the company too, so we can retire also”
With Zaid & Salim aged 46 & 43 respectively they may be a few years before retirement I can e realistically considered however states Zaid
“We are grooming employees to take on more responsibility within the business Who can do a job from within so that is something we are looking at for the future.
Our Parents are still great advisors to us even today and we look upon them as consultants we can always bounce ideas off. My Father Managing Director Salim proudly states “Myself and my brother believe in any thing that puts Grenada first.”
Brother Zaid reiterates, “We try to live in the principles of the lord, demonstrating to our staff and customers excellent Ethics, Values, & Fairness”.Salim adds, “If it were not for the mercy of God Almighty, for us striving to do what is right, I am convinced that we would not be where we are today and would not have experienced this level of success. Humans wake up everyday with a choice. and if we make the right choices in tune with our creator then we will be surely blessed. We try to make humanity better with our existence through the guidance of our Lord Almighty.
This is the story of Spice Isle Retreaders.
A story of Tyres, Scooters Batterries and Family
#18 Frequente Industrial Park, Grand Anse, St George’s, Grenada
Tel: 1 473-444-4533
Email: sirlmarketing@spiceisle.com
Web: Facebook Spice Isle Retreaders Ltd.