Make one stop at Gibsons for all your building needs

Vincentians thinking about constructing a new building, or renovating one, need not worry about procuring building supplies.

A shopper only needs to make one stop at Gibsons Building Supplies Ltd, Victoria Park or its Bay Street,{{more}} Kingstown, branch, and have at their disposal steel, cement, lumber, plywood, paints, nails, roofing materials, doors, windows, tools, tiles, sanitary fixtures, lighting fixtures, pipes and fittings, locks and kitchen sinks, at the most affordable prices in Kingstown.

As the company celebrates its 30th anniversary, Edwin Gibson, Assistant Manager, sat with his sister Vendolle Williams, the company’s Accounts Manager, to tell SEARCHLIGHT of their vision and the quality service that they have been proving to Vincentians.

“The advantage is it is a family business, and we don’t treat customers as just customers; we go beyond. It’s like everybody is a family. Customers coming to Gibsons Building Supplies, they could talk to my father, my sister, anyone of us and then they could even negotiate for better discounts,” said Edwin.

Gibson said that he believes that Gibsons Building Supplies will continue to serve Vincentians for a very long time. At the same time, he said that he believes that the business will continue to grow from generation to generation, with a second generation of Gibsons managing the business. He said already they have been putting things in motion to groom a third generation of Gibsons to carry on the affairs of the business.

Edwin recalled his introduction to the family’s business. He said he and his siblings got involved by assisting their father in his workshop by sanding furniture. By the time his father officially opened the doors of Gibsons Building Supplies Ltd., the children already understood their roles.

Edwin said that the second generation management team is looking to expand the business by establishing an outlet on the outskirts of Kingstown.

On the issue of challenges, he said the company has had to deal with additional competition from the increase in hardware stores throughout St.Vincent and the Grenadines.

Vendolle reiterated that she has been with the company from inception. She said the company is celebrating its 30th anniversary, but it was already into the sale of hardware material approximately two years before it got registered.

She said the company, being a family business, is set apart from other building supplies businesses in St.Vincent and the Grenadines.

“We treat other people as a family. We treat our staff as family, especially my dad. He does not just sit in his office, he meets and greets our customers. The customers like to know that they are welcomed. We just don’t want a customer to come just to spend money,” said Vendolle.

Explaining an advantage over other competitors, Vendolle said: “Some of the other hardware businesses might have to go to head office to make certain decisions. We don’t have to answer to anyone. If somebody comes, they might say, ‘this price is too high.’ We might refer them to my brother, because he has the prices and might be able to say, ‘We can give you a better price than that or we can give you a better discounts.’”

She said her father came from a poor background and this posed a challenge to his business in the earlier period, especially getting the necessary funds to runs the business efficiently. “But he had a very good relationship with his bankers, so they were able to have trust in him and lend him some money. But there were times when things were really, really hard.”

On the company’s future, Vendolle said in the near future, Kingstown will become quite congested and it will be great if the business can expand to offer a direct service to customers without them having to travel all the way to the capital.

“My father always tells us that he wants Gibsons Buildings Supplies Ltd. to continue. At all cost, we must try and continue it, because he started it, did a lot of work and he expects us to continue it. So he is hoping after he’s gone it would live on,” said Vendolle, adding that after some parents pass on, their businesses die, but the Gibson family will ensure that that does not happen to their company.