When the independent nation of Trinidad and Tobago was being born 50 years ago, Joseph "Lenny" Lall, now 90, and his wife Sylvia (nee Nath) founded this country's first and still only totally local mattress manufacturer, and fused their names to call it "Lensyl." In the late 1950s, Lenny was an auto mechanic living in London with plans to have his wife, son and three daughters join him in the UK, but his wife did not like the cold or being away from her SangreGrande siblings, and returned to Trinidad. While at a library in London, he happened upon an advertisement in a magazine about mattress manufacturing equipment. "I saw an opportunity and nobody was doing it in Trinidad," Lenny said. "At the time Dr (Eric) Williams was promoting industry in Trinidad," so Lenny responded to the advertisement, convinced the British he was "a businessman from Trinidad," and returned home, turning to his family and friends "to finance a project to manufacture mattresses." But, he said, "No one took me on. Nobody. They couldn't believe I could do it." Not giving up but in need of money to support his family of five, he went to Ram Kirpalani, owner of Kirpalani store chain, and asked for a job. Upon learning that he had married into the Nath family, today owners of Singer Caribbean and other furniture stores, Kirpalani told Lenny he could not afford to hire him. Not having been bankrolled by the Naths and in need of work and money, Lenny offered to work for free for three months, telling Kirpalani other prospects within that time would come to fruition. "He said, 'Alright, I'll try you out and see what you could do,'" Lenny told the Guardian in an interview at Lensyl's Macoya head office.
Three months later, impressed with Lenny, Kirpalani kept him on as Assistant Manager of his store on Henry Street, Port of Spain.
With no experience but not without God, who he said repeatedly was with him, Lenny convinced Kirpalani to invest in mattress manufacturing under Lenny and Sylvia's house, at the corner of Bell-Smythe and Agostini Streets in Curepe.
There he started a joint, albeit verbal, venture with Kirpalani and called it Rest Rite. Kirpalani told Lenny he had a 40 percent shareholding in the company while Kirpalani retained 60 percent. Within only 11 months, "we had sold $250,000 in mattresses," with a buy-1-get-1-free promotion, Lenny said. At the time, riots in Guyana destroyed the Kirpalani branch in Georgetown, and forced Gool Kirpalani, brother of Ram, to leave Guyana and join Lenny, an unrelated partner with no written partnership agreement, at Rest Rite in an unclassified but boss-like capacity. Gool attempted to take over the under-Lenny's-house mattress factory but Lenny would not have it, so he asked Ram to allow him to cash out of the joint venture. Ram offered instead to guarantee a $20,000 loan for Lenny to go out on his own. To this, he added personal savings of $6,000 earned from working in England as an auto mechanic and from the commissioning of a mattress factory in Guyana for a wealthy Guyanese family who had learned about Rest Rite in Trinidad. He also benefitted from a £50,000 line of credit of 50,000 from the confirming house Gillespie Brothers in England, which allowed him to establish Lensyl in 1962. The company remained under Lenny's house until 1968 when it moved to Macoya. A fire in 1969, and challenges with the then Transport and Industrial Workers Union (TIWU) in 1971 pushed Lenny to the brink of shutting down, which led to Robert's return from Canada in 1971, eventually taking over the company's management that year. Lenny's grandson, Justin, 34, now General Manager of Lensyl, pointed out that Lensyl also survived "total destruction by fire in 1982 and 1989," another fire in 1990, and severe flooding in 2003. Asked why so many fires, Justin said the foam-making process is prone to fires because it involves a lot of heat. "It can self ignite," Robert interjected. Robert took over the company in 1971 and grew it from 21 employees and $6 million per annum in 1971 to 200 employees at and in 2007. A private company, Justin withheld the figure for revenue in 2007, but said Lensyl was producing 250 mattresses per day at its prime in 2007 and spoke of a "1,000 percent increase" during his father's tenure.
Competition
"The only competition we face right now would be from Serta. It's an external source but it is made here. They [the mattresses] are not imported," Justin said, adding that Serta benefits from an unfair advantage. He explained: "There's an unfair perception in developing economies that if 'it' comes from the US or a first world nation, it is better." He said Serta therefore benefits from advertising on US cable television that reaches local consumers, and leads them to believe they are buying an imported, superior product. He said that it is only through quality and innovation that Lensyl has been able "to survive and succeed" over the years. Justin told the Guardian that many of the major hotel deals for mattresses went to his competitor. The contract to supply mattresses to the Hyatt went to Serta because of the links between the two US head offices. "Government pays only lip service to manufacturing," Robert said. And his son added: "I want to be the next Serta. I think I have something I could take outside. That is where I would need the help." There is a disconnect between what the politicians are saying and what is actually happening, Justin said. He criticized politicians saying they were not serious about promoting the local manufacturing sector and "local content" in foreign investments. Justin said the international economic downturn, which started in 2008, affected Lensyl because "a mattress is a discretionary product." During difficult economic times, people procrastinate before buying a new mattress. His father agreed, "People will sleep on an old mattress. Once nobody seeing it, people will live with that." Since the economic downturn, some 90 employees have had to be laid off, Justin said, taking the current workforce down to 110. Robert interjected, "Among those 90 employees, some had been working here for 20 years and so on, and I'll tell you something: they all left here satisfied. It cost the company a lot of money in severance benefits, and not one of them had cause to go to the Ministry of Labour or the (trade) union." Asked what lessons he had passed on to his son to take over the company, Robert who described himself as "semi-retired" said he impressed upon Justin to maintain "good human relations, adherence to quality, maintaining a good corporate image." Robert said corporate social responsibility is important to Lensyl. He cited sponsorship of the Tunapuna/Piarco regional sports and contributions to Sforzata steelband, calypso tents, the soca monarch competition, and the Cancer Society.
Future
"The future of this company is access to market and innovation; continued good employee relations, and compliance - environmental, regulatory," Justin said. Noting that the "revenue per employee" at Lensyl has gone up since he took office, Justin said, "We have become more efficient in this recession, by necessity of course." Justin said he has great plans for the company, including the establishment of "a mega factory" producing mattresses, even if he has to look for a location outside of Trinidad and Tobago. He said globalization has helped only first world countries to expand into the developing countries thanks to their economies of scale, and international advertising reach through cable television, but has been to the detriment of companies in developing countries. The third generation businessman said, "In the constant motion that exists, the cream will rise to the top."
