The inside of your house is where you live and while it is nice to have an attractive look on the outside having a beautiful and comfortable interior is just as or even more important.
Enter H.I. Limited, located at Lance Aux Epines, dedicated to giving the interior the pampering it deserves and giving you the comfort and peace of mind you crave.  MR. STEPHEN HERRERA, FOUNDER/MANAGER OF H.I. LIMITED Founder/Manager of H.R. Limited, Grenadian Mr. Stephen Herrera’s passion for his work comes out with every word, every gesture. You can actually feel his emotion and his commitment to ensure reliability and top quality all of the way.
H.I. Limited builds kitchen cabinets, bedroom cupboards, vanities all types of custom built interior wood work for homes.
Coming from a woodworking family Herrera brings to the industry a wealth of expertise and experience gleaned from growing up in the workshop and the ten years he lived in Trinidad working in the field of woodwork. H.I. Limited itself started off in Trinidad 10 years ago at which time it was manufacturing rattan furniture.
While producing rattan furniture Stephen developed an interest in woodwork, realizing that the cabinetry business was in demand. He then learned how to make kitchen cabinets in Trinidad. After gaining experience in that field he returned to Grenada and started his own business about one year ago. Stephen is the son of well known Grenadian furniture maker Rudolph Herrera who has been manufacturing furniture in Grenada for the last 45 years. His outlet was originally located on Halifax Street, St. George’s while his production took place at the present site of H.I. Limited. Stephen’s grandfather in Trinidad was also a furniture maker and his father’s brother Isaac did the same in Barbados. With a background like that and growing up around the workshop seeing the workers building things since he was a little boy it is no wonder that Stephen’s interest went in that direction. He said as he started doing the cabinets everything just fell straight into place since that is what he was born into. After marrying a Trinidadian Peter went to live in that country where he remained for 10 years until the death of his wife upon which he decided to move back to Grenada and establish his business. The professional makes it clear that H.I. Limited is not just another cabinet making company but one that has set itself the objective of improving on joinery work and cabinetry in Grenada. They want to do modern work for people, professionally and on time to the satisfaction of the client. Stephen said that after Hurricanes Ivan and Emily there was a lot of work to be done but he decided not to rush back to Grenada immediately knowing that people wanted to put their roofs back on and do things that are more important than putting in a kitchen. This gave him a bit of time to prepare himself to come back so when he eventually did, most people already had their roofs back on and were ready to look at other areas of their rebuilding.
Stephen’s calculation proved correct as he met a situation of demand for his services. He said although it was difficult for some people to find money after they had repaired their houses there were others who were returning and buying lands after the hurricanes and he came back in the right time to meet these foreigners who were building in addition to the local people who were ready financially and otherwise for him and got the opportunity to build new kitchens in their houses. Of course H.I. Limited was competing with other players on the market who were offering the same products and services but this did not prove too much of a worry for Stephen as he knew and was proving that what he was offering was on a level above what was already available.
He brought into play the kind of improved tools that speed up the job. He said a lot of people had had bad experiences with the local joiners having to wait 3, 4, or 5 months for a kitchen and sometimes when they did get it, it was far from what they requested. When H.I. builds a kitchen for a client they must first ensure that the house is ready and they can then build and install the kitchen within 3 weeks to 1 month. Stephen said one of the problems he has encountered is that people may request a kitchen to be ready in one month, it is built and ends up staying in the workshop for one month after that because the house was not ready as the contractor had promised. Sometimes when the person is finally ready the workshop is busy doing work for people whose work is due soon and it is difficult to leave it and attend to someone they had been waiting on for 5 months. Stephen does not pretend that everything is perfect in his workshop and the production process. He said he had some very good workers in Trinidad but coming back home he decided not to take them with him since he wanted to employ Grenadians whom he knew to be very good workers. He was somewhat disappointed as the attitude to work that he met was not quite what he expected. The Grenadian workers he said are willing but they not as experienced in turning out the kind of work that he is determined to do. As he put it he came here to build kitchens not carpentry cupboards.  A COMPANY WITH THE OBJECTIVE OF IMPROVING JOINERY WORK AND CABINETRY He also had some problems trying to get people to come to work on time. Stephen insisted that the local workers are good, honest fellows but probably suffer from the attitude of not really having to work since there is so much food available, growing all over the place. As he put it you can walk outside and a breadfruit hits you in the head or you go down by the sea, help pull the net and the fisherman will give you some fish so some people believe they don’t really need to do anything. However there are other needs that you need money to fulfill like clothes, shoes and education for the children.
Up to this day, he said a year after opening there are still guys walking in an hour late and staying away from work for the slightest reason. He still has problems getting people to work overtime even though they are properly paid for it. He has tried several solutions, giving bonuses for coming to work on time. Giving $2 an hour extra including their normal overtime pay for working overtime and is still having problems. Stephen sees this attitude as a dangerous one for the growth of the country and overall development. He said if we in Grenada do not wake up and understand what is happening regionally and internationally people from outside with demand for work will not accept this attitude. “It is not right for us to sit back and do things any old how because people needing work done will bring in foreigners to do the jobs then Grenadians will be set aside.” Peter said we must not be satisfied with what we have but push ourselves to learn more and become more professional.
Times are changing, demands are changing, he said and what was accepted before will not be accepted in this new dispensation.
He thinks government should have a scope of what is going to happen in the future and put systems in place to prepare local workers and students for it. Stephen thinks a lot of foreigners are willing to invest in the country and the authorities must be able to analyze what skills they are going to need and start training people to provide them from today so that we will be ready for that time. He admits that the less than professional attitude of workers will delay his plans of growth and expansion because it holds up production.
Mr. Herrera received support from the banks and the Grenada Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) when he was setting up his business and the only thing to hold him back now is labor.
He has plans to expand his business even to other islands in the region but he must have the necessary support in terms of labor.
According to Stephen, Grenadians need to take a look into the future and see where we are going as a country and make sure we are ready as a people.
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