For most of us, from childhood we had been admonished to decide on our future career from a very early age so we can work toward it from then. Not many of us had done that though, our fascination and imagination swinging from this profession to that and sometimes finishing school having yet to decide on a career. Many times opportunity and necessity decide for us.
 SAMUEL LEWIS Samuel Lewis was one of the few who decided what he wanted to do with the rest of his life from an early age. From the beginning he hadn’t much interest in the long sleeve wearing, pen pushing occupation. That was not for him, he wanted more action, he wanted to make things happen, to see things going up around him. He likes to see heavy equipment in operation and things being built. In fact upon leaving school, Sammy declined a job at the then Barclay’s bank in favor of the more action oriented field he is now involved in. However Sammy’s energy and drive would not allow him to do thing the traditional, ordinary way. He didn’t want to be one of the drones that went along with all of the others.
Sammy wants to lead, he wants to be the trendsetter, he wants to be ahead of the game. In short, Sammy’s Ready Mix is a leader in the field and its manager intends for it to remain that way. One manifestation of this leadership quality is the boom truck, the only one of its kind on the island that can be seen pouring concrete at various locations around the island including at the GBSS compound.
This truck has revolutionized the way concrete is poured in Grenada and ushered in a new era of efficiency and time economy in the construction industry.
Sammy is no wet- behind the ears, Johnny come lately to the construction and ready mix business. He has been involved in his father’s ready mix; trucking and construction business for some time now and also has considerable experience managing his own enterprise. Sammy’s Ready Mix started out as a venture in Carriacou when Sammy saw an opportunity in that market. The business did quite well until the coming of Hurricane Ivan which slowed down things a bit in Carriacou but created an opportunity to return to Grenada and join the reconstruction taking place here. On returning to Grenada, Sammy operated at his fathers business, running the ready mix aspect of things. Dad was by then phasing himself out of this part of the operations. His father by the way is well known, long standing businessman James Lewis of Country Cold Store and Lewis Trucking and Construction Services. Lewis Tricking and Construction Services Sammy said was his initiative even though it was financed and co-operated by his dad. Sammy later decided to continue pursuing his dreams and went back into his own venture opening his own company in July 2006 at Dusty Highway not far from where his father’s business is located. Sammy said combined with his love for the field, traveling overseas further exposed him to lots of what is taking place in this industry and convinced him to look at the bigger picture. The preparing and pouring of concrete is a very challenging and technical undertaking but is something he likes doing. The ready mix business is one that seems to have been expanding in Grenada in recent years and therefore is becoming more and more competitive. This means that for an operative to remain at the top or close to it he has to be doing something special, something that the others are not doing or doing what they are doing but better.
Sammy said for his part he doesn’t worry much about the competition but worries about being dependable, being reliable to his clients, the people in the community and the nation as a whole. He is focused on building his business in such a way that people can depend on him in terms of his product and the delivery of the product. Sammy thinks that in any field of operation one should always strive to use the technological developments available to deliver a better product or service in a more reliable manner hence his introduction of the pump boom truck method of pouring concrete. He said Grenada has been accustomed to the line pump method which involves a lot of linking of pipes to get the distance and then shifting them around in order to pour the concrete evenly. Sammy said he had been using that method himself and finds it ay long and tedious process.
Traveling and being exposed to the technology that was available he decided to go a step ahead of what was normal in Grenada and invest in that particular bit of equipment that would cause him to execute more easily and faster for the customer. At an investment of almost _ million dollars the boom requires the use of less manpower but makes much more work possible in a given space of time than the existing methods.  SAMMY’S PUMP BOOM TRUCK The boom truck makes an easy task of casting footings, columns, retaining walls and especially decking. The pump apparatus of the truck is operated by hydraulic cylinders which move the pump, pipes and everything else into place. The boom allows you to place the concrete to the height of your lines wherever you want it and all the mason has to do is level. Sammy said that piece of equipment can be ready to pump concrete on a 7th floor building within _ hour. Using the older system, a crane or some other bit of equipment would be necessary to help get the pipes up the floors but the boom truck does it hydraulically and is ready to pour. The ready mix expert is convinced that Grenada is now poised to undertake higher rise buildings than have been traditional and this has already begun, people going up 4, 5, and even 6 floors as is the case with the project in Lance Aux Epines. Yes Sammy does think that the local construction industry is ready for this technology and has accepted the piece of equipment that he has introduced. It is being talked about and people are calling for it to execute the difficult jobs which it of course makes easy. Based on the fact that our land space is getting smaller in Grenada, Sammy thinks the only solution is to go higher and this is where we are headed. The manager of Sammy’s ready Mix gives the assurance that the method he employs does not in any way compromise the quality of the concrete. In fact by getting the concrete in place more quickly it ensures a better quality because the longer the concrete stays agitating in a mixer the more it deteriorates. Sammy is adamant that his company must be the leader in the supply of quality concrete to local consumers. He said “we have gone the long way and the extra mile and invested in making sure that this is the case”.
He said he will continue to invest in technologically advanced equipment since even now what is new technology in Grenada is already archaic in other parts of the world. Sammy’s goal is to ensure more production with less manpower and a better product to the customer. So far the pump boom truck has been active at the GBSS rebuilding, the Independence Agencies building on the Maurice Bishop Highway, has save the day for the Prickly Bay Marina project, is engaged in the Port Louis project and quite a few other projects including several residential structures. Sammy goes wherever the job requires him to go. At the moment Sammy’s Ready Mix employs 16 persons so he is also playing his role in employment creation although this figure can vary up or down based on the demand. Sammy sees a future of continuing to be able to supply and deliver a high quality of concrete and delving further into other areas of concrete such as color concrete, decorated concrete, the use of admixtures, light weight concrete for roofing purposes.
He has already attended seminars and workshops dealing with those areas and says the damages that were done by Hurricane Ivan due to bad materials should be a thing of the past and we should now focus our vision of getting quality materials and having the right things done.
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