The efforts to get Nature Island Paper Products going again will include much more than manufacturing toilet paper this time around, Managing Director Severin McKenzie is promising.
“Nature Islands Paper Products has submitted another proposal to the AID Bank and government to incorporate production of paper towels and biodegradable products and also to convert banana byproducts into paper.
Everyone has a major interest in the company: the AID Bank, government and the shareholders and the systems are in place for the operations under new management particularly in this present COVID-19 pandemic,” he told reporters on Monday.
Nature Island Paper Products has a checkered past in terms of what was an ongoing fight to get the kind of local support it needed to attain from the authorities and others in a position to provide required encouragement, and that experience has fashioned the company’s never-give-up approach to the business at hand.
The company last month celebrated its 10th anniversary but has not been operating since the passage of Hurricane Maria in Dominica almost three years ago.
Nature Island Paper Products’ history as related by McKenzie is almost the stuff of a bestseller that chronicles the kind of politics not favourable to those thought to be not in the pockets of the political bigwigs in power.
According to McKenzie, ten years ago, he ventured into an investment aimed at securing his livelihood after his physical structure proved incapable of sustaining the demands of his profession as an architect.
“In the process, the intention was to create employment for others and contribute towards the reduction of a trade imbalance where Dominica imports more the ninety-five percent of the products it consumes,” he pointed out.
The architect and businessman explained that he was very aware that his business venture is a private investment and with “private investments there are risks involved” and in the end, he is responsible for the consequences that follow.
McKenzie stated that he had “totally miscalculated the viciousness of our political system and our politicians.”
“By the end of our fifth year of operations, we recognized a high level of hostility towards the company. The former Dominica Ambassador to Venezuela and ALBA deliberately frustrated the efforts to access the Venezuelan market. We encountered difficulties with the Ministry of Education for use of our products in the schools,” McKenzie recounted.
He recalled however that after a complaint was made to the government in subsequent years the company was able to secure the sale of the paper to the Ministry of Education.
According to Managing Director McKenzie the company’s building suffered minor damage after the passage of Hurricane Maria and was able to get a package of assistance from the suppliers and decided to venture into paper towels and napkins and three months after the passage of Hurricane Maria submitted a proposal to the AID Bank for the restructuring of their loan to facilitate that level of expansion and is yet to get a response.
“The government of Dominica made a facility at the AID Bank for the manufacturing sector at 2.0 percent and all attempts to access it has been futile…also the departure of Ross University from Dominica who was one of our major customers was fatal to us.”
McKenzie stated that three years after the passage of Hurricane Maria, the only paper company on the island lies in rubble, (although) the machines are only seven years old and still new.
Severin McKenzie, an eternal optimist, remains hopeful that the important role his company can play in making a contribution to the Dominican economy will not again be brushed aside by the nasty sting of island politics by people and leaders who should know better.