By Vishani Ragobeer
A total of $440 million has already been invested into the establishment and expansion of four local factories that will support DuraVilla homes’ house-making venture, the company’s Head Rafeek Khan said.
Khan, at the recent launch of the company’s 1,000+ modular timber houses project, announced that the new factories were being set up at Diamond, East Bank Demerara, Region Four (Demerara- Mahaica) and Annai, Region Nine (Upper Takutu- Upper Essequibo).
These facilities are expected to expand ongoing production at the Yarrowkabra and Land of Canaan factories, both in Region Four.
At Yarrowkabra, raw materials processing is done. Housing panels are manufactured at Land of Canaan and Khan said this facility could produce one ready-for-export timber house daily. Both facilities saw investments of about $350 million.
Because of the local and regional demand for these wooden houses, the company needs to expand.
“We have to quickly move in the next 30 days to produce four houses a day,” the businessman highlighted.
As such, $30 million was invested in the Annai facility, where sawmilling and possibly manufacturing will be done. On Monday, Khan said this facility is already operational. Another $60 million was invested at the Diamond location which is set to start operations next week.
With those investments, the company should be able to produce four houses per day.
Chief among the company’s operations will be to satisfy the order of 100 houses made by the Government of Barbados and a further 50 houses procured by St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Guyana’s Government is also seeking some of these ready-made houses.
And at both of these new locations, the company will be investing large sums in the coming months. In fact, Khan told the News Room that an additional $210 million will be invested by the end of June.
The investments will not only support the house-making venture but it will allow Khan to manufacture other products.
According to Khan, another $100 million will be invested into the production of cabinets and basic furniture such as tables, chairs and beds. That expansion is expected to start in 2024.
Already, the company employs more than 90 people at its Yarrowkabra and Land of Canaan facility. Khan projects that more people will gain employment as the company expands.
