Local businessman capitalising on construction boom with new $300M hardware store
Local businessman Imran Ally is capitalising on the country’s ongoing housing and construction drive with his new $300 million hardware store at Enmore on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD).
The new store, which is a one-stop shop for all the tools and materials needed for construction, was commissioned on Sunday, about 14 years after Ally first started building the facility.
Over the years, Ally has been selling out of his general store at Enmore; he also had several bonds aback the community. He, however, believes that having all the equipment and materials in one central location would provide a more conducive shopping experience for customers.
This compliments the free delivery and no down payment services offered, he boasted.
Ally also related that the complex will employ about 40 people, many of whom will be drawn from Enmore and other surrounding communities.
Though the substantial investment had been planned for over a decade, Ally acknowledged that his business is now poised to capitalise on the ongoing construction boom in Guyana.
With the government distributing thousands of house lots while simultaneously subsiding new housing units, business is abundant for the businessman.
“With the amount of infrastructure going on in the country, we see this as fitting.
“We’ve been there all these years – over 20 years in the construction field- …(and) we just believe that if we come to the front and centralise everything, everything would fit in,” Ally said.
Minister of Housing and Water Collin Croal was keen on acknowledging that the opening of the new hardware complex was timely, given the housing developments.
With a majority of Ally’s customers hailing from the East Coast corridor, the minister announced that the businessman is expected to benefit significantly from the government’s plans to allocate 5,000 house lots there over the next nine months.
Croal also said that the national construction sector should expand by about 40 per cent by the end of this year with the raft of ongoing housing and infrastructural projects. Therefore, he reasoned that Ally was capitalising on the developments with his new store.
This single hardware complex would not be able to meet the demand for materials and equipment, though. Already, shortages in concrete and plywood have evidenced the rapidly increasing demand for construction materials amid global supply challenges.
As such, Minister Croal called on other private sector players to pursue similar ventures. In doing so, Croal said local business people can be assured of the government’s support.