Rock Solid scales staff eightfold on tank demand

Rock Solid Plastics Ltd turns out up to 150 water tanks a day from its Kingston factory and now employs 40 people, up from five when it started in 2020.

The company said demand has held steady as drought worsens on farms and water shortages hit homes.

“There are several lines of businesses that are easier than manufacturing, but they don’t carry us anywhere as a nation,” Managing Director and majority owner Andrew Simpson said after a media tour of the Ashenheim Road plant on September 16.

The company makes water tanks alongside a range of other plastic products, and has invested in energy-efficient technology. The company imports raw material and uses moulds to construct the tanks. Simpson said its entry into the market has helped the Government fulfil its tank orders.

“Now we can deliver the same day,” he said.

Rock Solid operates from a 14,000 square feet facility, but Simpson wants to move to a larger compound, possibly in St Catherine. He wants lower rent, space to install solar, and a shorter commute for staff.

Simpson, a former Champion Young Farmer in St Mary, traces the idea to the difficulty he and other farmers had securing water for their farms more than 10 years ago. He began to treat it seriously only after he saw a newspaper advertisement for the sale of a rotational moulding business, and founded the company in 2020 after years of research.

“This is predominantly a rural product, so Westmoreland is a big market, St James is another … we’re talking farmers, households,” Simpson said.

It competes in a market led by Rhino Jamaica Limited, set up some 30 years ago.

Demand has been robust for several years as the residential pattern of Jamaicans has shifted towards cities and towns and away from deep rural communities. Changing rainfall patterns have meant greater water insecurity, as evidenced in the nightly lock-offs the National Water Commission currently runs in Kingston.

Rock Solid has secured business during the water crisis as a supplier under a government programme. Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness announced the programme in 2023 to distribute 10,000 water tanks to households across Jamaica, followed last year by an allocation of 150 tanks to each member of parliament for distribution to constituents.

The 650-gallon and 1,000-gallon tanks sell best to households and farmers, while schools and other institutions take the 2,500-gallon units. Prices run from $16,500, plus tax, for the smallest 200-gallon tank to $212,000, plus tax, for the 2,500-gallon unit.

Most raw material comes from Mexico, with the company also buying from Brazil and parts of Asia.

Simpson credits the police at Hunts Bay with keeping the area workable.

“When there are issues, we definitely get very good support from our security forces … . Things have drastically changed, especially over the past two years. It’s a different space that Jamaica is operating in now,” he said, adding that he offers discounts to members of the security forces, teachers, and other government workers.

Crime still weighs on the wider corporate area. Minister of State in the Ministry of Investment and Commerce, Delano Seiveright, aborted his visit to the factory to quell a protest by residents in his St Andrew North Central constituency over the killing of a man by police.

Simpson is eyeing Caribbean exports — not tanks, but smaller items the company makes, such as garbage bins, planters, and plastic manhole covers.

luke.douglas@gleanerjm.com