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our core products and services,” he begins. “That has been a challenge, but
no more than what we are capable of.We’ve lost a couple of big customers,
such as Shell and Total, who closed up shop here in the country– they had
a global restructuring which caused some changes to our local market. Not
losing a beat, we went looking for new clients and we continue to maintain
some old, traditional ones.” One such client is the National Petroleum Com-
pany which Quesnel says is likely to claim a greater portion of the oil market
in Trinidad and the CARICOM region as a whole, now that Shell and Total
have left. Resin Converters is on the verge of launching a new container
shape for National Petroleum and says that “they’re very excited about it.”
Quesnel also reports that his company has made the decision to further
penetrate the food market, and that it is also looking at putting product in
bottles for the export market. “One of the things that has hit Trinidad busi-
ness very hard is the availability of foreign exchange,” he says, explaining
the company’s desire to push exports. “We have failed to keep the value of
our currency on a floating system– it doesn’t slide as the world’s currencies
resin converters limited
AT A GLANCE
Resin Converters
Limited
WHAT: A world-class manufacturer of plas-
tic packaging products
WHERE: Caroni, Trinidad
WEBSITE:
I do feel, very strongly, that a
recession is a time when you
don’t curl up and lay low. It’s a
time for you to dig in, explore
new opportunities, and bring
the company to better profit-
ability. And if we continue to
do what we’re doing, we should
see a very good return on in-
vestment.
Chris Quesnel,
founder