GTECH going after new business in Jamaica
Published:Friday | May 7, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Sabrina Gordon, Business Reporter
GTECH Corp is having exploratory talks with local partner Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL) on new areas in which the two can do business, says the American company's chairman, Donald Sweitzer.
"We are talking to our partners at SVL about some of the possible other areas that we might use our technology," Sweitzer told the Financial Gleaner after his presentation at a breakfast forum in Kingston Tuesday.
"But we are in very early stages of those discussions now ... . That is one of the reasons why I am here," he said.
Sweitzer declined to disclose the specific areas being looked at but noted that in other countries, GTECH has a lot of non-gaming business over its system such as phonecard top-ups - one of the services already being offered in Jamaica by the company.
GTECH has provided gaming equipment to SVL, including video lottery terminals being paid for in instalments at an imputed interest rate of 5.38 per cent per year; provides technical and marketing services to the Jamaican company under contract; and last September struck a deal with SVL to fund the "unfunded portion" of the new Super Lotto jackpot - all disclosures contained within SVL's annual financial results for 2009.
Sweitzer also told the Financial Gleaner that GTECH offers services regarding tax payment, car registration, hunting licences and insurance payments in other countries.
But as to whether those services are to be offered in Jamaica, he said it was too early to tell.
"There are a variety of things that we can do over our system that people do every day. Do I think that those particular ones mentioned would be something we do in Jamaica? We are not sure," he said.
"We would rely on our partners and local folks to advise us on it and then we need to get approval from the Government, and those are the things we are talking about," he added.
Sweitzer, who was on a three-day visit to Jamaica, spoke at a breakfast forum organised by the American Chamber of Commoerce of Jamaica about 'Building Strong Relationship Across International Borders in the New Global Environment'.
Among the key dos and don'ts the GTECH chairman pointed to as necessary to build strong international relationships are not to ignore local economic and political trends, or assume that every market and every business partner is the same.
hire local people
Instead, hire local people who know and live in the day-to-day environment, find highly-competent people on the ground with established relationships such as consultants and have an in-country image that is fully integrated into the local market, he advised.
He also implored businesses not to be afraid of change but rather to prepare for it.
GTECH has had a presence in Jamaica since 2001, and operates from an office on Barbados Avenue in New Kingston.
The American company now provides the market with seven different gaming products, and its gross sales in Jamaica have grown to approximately J$23 billion, according to Sweitzer.