Frankson steers EdgeChem through

20 years on the cutting edge

Deika Morrison, Business Writer

Doreen Frankson has always been a manufacturer. So, it came as no surprise that in 1991 when she wanted to start a new business, she chose to, in her words, "make something".

That something was furniture finishes, and she started with two employees in rented facilities in Olympic Gardens.

With J$1 million seed capital, EdgeChem Jamaica Limited was born.

For the past 20 years, with Frankson as managing director, EdgeChem has grown from strength to strength. Today, the company has annual net sales of more than J$800 million.

In a word, the growth has been meteoric.

First, there is the product line.

In just one year after starting in furniture finishes, EdgeChem added the industrial and automotive lines. In fact, EdgeChem not only expanded, it innovated because the automotive line was then and is now the only Caribbean-made automotive paint.

Despite the fact that Jamaica did not produce cars, Frankson's market research demonstrated high demand for this import used primarily for repairs.

With those three product lines, EdgeChem served a similar customer base - industrial entities, garages and repair shops. However, in 2005, Edgechem started to cater to a larger and new, for them, demographic - the domestic consumer - when the decorative line was introduced with the Colorglow brand. With great success, this line was expanded with EdgeSpirit in 2010.

Today, EdgeChem produces more than 100 different products from the four main product lines. Moreover, the company has developed the flexibility to create to custom specifications for manufactures and other technical users of the products.

Production facilities

Second, there are the production facilities.

Within four years of incorporation, demand fueled expansion and EdgeChem built its own factory and corporate offices on Carifta Avenue. As is to be expected for a manufacturer of paints and finishes, this is a bright and bold building that cannot be missed. In an innovative marketing move, one wall is a multi-coloured patchwork of trowel-on paints, displaying the product and a sample of the colour options.

Inside, the administrative offices sit atop the laboratory and the production floor. Of course, the view from Frankson's office is the production floor.

The 15,000 square feet of factory space is highly organised, labelled, but yet flexible enough to accommodate the multiple product lines, as well as various processes in production - retrieving raw materials, mixing, various quality control measures, tinting, packaging into finished product and storage.

The research and development department is always in product development. Testing is done on-site and overseas to ensure product quality and consumer safety.

Third, there is the geographic reach.

The company has four warehouses and 14 outlets across the island. Always innovating, one of the most popular outlets is a renovated container located in a gas station. And while these EdgeChem facilities have extended the geographic reach, the company's products can be found in almost every 'nook and cranny' of Jamaica, thanks to the help of more than 500 distributors/partners.

Beyond Jamaica, EdgeChem has been exporting, since 1998, across the Caribbean.

Fourth, there is the staff.

Demand-driven growth, additional product lines, increased facilities and expanded reach necessitated additional staff.

"When you buy EdgeChem Jamaica Ltd's products, you provide employment for your father, mother, sister, brother and neighbours," read the company's Christmas message.

Frankson is most proud of the employment created by EdgeChem, which provides steady jobs for 160 people. These are people involved in a variety of activities - research and development, production, managerial/supervisory, admini-stration - making quality products to international standards for Jamaica and the export markets.

With 60 per cent under the age of 30, these are mostly young people who have been trained and work in a strict no-tolerance environ-ment that engenders discipline. So deep is Frankson's commit-ment to employment that despite a 26 per cent reduction in sales in the recession, not one person was made redundant.

It should surprise no one that Christmas message also read: "We are proud to be a vehicle for development".

Manufacturing advocate

Frankson, who was awarded the Order of Distinction in the class of Commander for contribution to the manufacturing sector and advancing industrial production, is a tireless, vocal and unapologetic advocate of manufacturing and its critical role in development, growth and job creation.

As president of the Jamaica Manufacturer's Association, 2003-2007, Frankson gave manufacturing a face and voice through many initiatives, not the least of which was the 'Buy Jamaica, Build Jamaica' campaign.

While she tended to the needs of the sector as a whole, Frankson naturally had less time to devote to her own company. But EdgeChem was resilient. And Frankson credits this resilience and overall success, even in the face of the sub-sequent recession when she had returned, to the strength of the "partnership of friends" who founded the company - Errol Powell, Geoffrey Messado, William McLeod and herself.

Yes, her friends took a risk on a venture, but they saw it more as supporting a friend - her. She was then and is to this day one of the few women at the helm of a manufacturing company.

According to Frankson, the partners are "always on the same page" and have never argued.

They have remained committed to the company with each partner reinvesting to facilitate growth.

This year, EdgeChem celebrates its 20th anniversary with even more growth plans under consideration.

Deika Morrison is managing director of Mdk Advisory & Consulting Limited, and creator of the newly launched 'Made in Jamaica Catalogue'. deika@jamaicacatalogue.com

EdgeChem products

Decorative finishes: flat, gloss and low-sheen paints, trowel-on and textured paints.

Automotive finishes: car paints, urethane clear coats, urethane hardeners, nitrocellulose primers, nitrocellulose putty, acrylic putty, acrylic primer, auto-body filler, catalyst, thinners, reducers and chassis protector.

Furniture finishes: sealers, stains, spar varnish, putties, primer surfacer and lacquers.

Industrial finishes: red oxide primer, Quick Dri enamels and light industrial enamels.