Penlac- celebrating 30 years of excellence |02 February 2016
Seychelles Nation has found out that Penlac managed to celebrate its 30 years’ anniversary in-house in a very low profile manner but in dignity because apparently most of the staff do not care much about any outside publicity.
Our journalists only got to know of this after the company had placed an advert in its newspaper earlier in January commemorating 30 years of producing consistently high quality paints.
This low-key celebration was as follows: The chief executive, Gafoor Yakub, got all his managerial, supervisory and factory floor staff to attend a little informal drinks party after office hours in early January 2016 because the month of December 2015 was just too busy for any of that. He somehow managed to get all of his 30-odd staff and management personnel to take part, some of whom have been with the company for over 26 and 30 years.
The chairman and managing director organised the small cocktail party in the company’s staff canteen around the close of business on a Friday evening and distributed a personal set of gifts to each full-time employee, including managers and supervisors, for services rendered to Penlac as the long-established and reputed local paint manufacturing industry in Seychelles. When interviewed briefly over the phone, he noted that “Penlac is nothing without the dedication of its people”.
A special treat in the form of a cash award was presented by the CEO to each of the longest serving staff who had served over 15 years. The newer staff raised their glasses and cheered the long serving staff. The longest serving staff numbered 11 out of a total workforce of 30. Four out of the 11 longest serving staff are women. Occasionally during the busy periods, Penlac employs casual workers to support its core staff, hence the total Penlac workforce can rise up to 40 during the course of the year. Given that almost all the long serving staff have decided to stay on and work for Penlac in 2016, then most of them have surpassed their years of service listed as follows: José Thomas, Marie Cafrine (30 years), Geva Coopoosamy (29), Nixon Albert, Savina Andrade (26), Lenny Camille, Bryton Brigillia (22), Mandy Vital (21), Ken Desaubin, Sandy Laboudallon, Henry Barallon (19).
One of the longest serving staff, José Thomas, the production manager, gave his impressions of Penlac in the past and in the present and he summed it up as follows: “After 30 years of service, I am very satisfied that Penlac has become the number one brand of paint in Seychelles. Since Mr Pothin went into retirement in April 2012, the new management has worked closely with us at the factory floor and managed to boost morale and increase the production very significantly. We are working as a team with our management and with the managing director.”
When asked about future aspirations, Mr Thomas remarked that “in future, we hope to continue progressing and developing our teams so that our paint quality remains the top one in Seychelles”.
One younger individual who joined the colour mixing init in the production department in December 2009 is Christopher Roucou. Christopher enjoys sports, namely football, outside of work but at work, he takes his job seriously. He is keen to develop his skills in the art of colour matching aimed at satisfying customers’ specific requests. Christopher said: “I joined Penlac five years ago and I’ve seen changes and development in both the Colour Mixing Unit and the overall production. The encouragement from management helps us with the teamwork. And as a group of workers in colour mixing, our communication with each other has become better.”
Lenny Camille, the raw materials store supervisor, who is someone with 24 years of service this year, stated: “I have experienced a major transformation in Penlac in terms of the working conditions and the pay and benefits, especially the performance bonus.”
He then added “Let me just say that the management style has also improved, thus encouraging us, workers, to perform better.”
It looks like Penlac has been more successful since it was privatised in 1995. Presently, Penlac is a clear success story. Change of management style and the devotion of its workers and positive attitudes have made a difference to the company’s output and overall performance in recent years.
Before that time, Penlac was generating net losses when it was being run as a joint venture business for almost 10 consecutive years from its inception in 1985 to 1995.
