Domus expands footprint with hurricane-ready products

Months after entering the Jamaica market, Trinidad-based Domus Windows & Doors is continuing its regional expansion.

Following a tour of its Factory Road, Chaguanas plant on March 26, Domus CEO Terry Ortt said the company is currently establishing a footing in the Barbados market.

The factory was built in 2018 and Ortt said business really kicked off in 2021 after the covid19 pandemic.

In October 2024, it entered the Jamaican market and is now working on the Barbados market.

"We have a distributor there who is building his own warehouse and everything."

However, he believes the company's best growth opportunity is in Jamaica.

"It's a much bigger market. The competitors that we have there are less sophisticated and have a very narrow product line.

"Particularly with our hurricane lines, we're the only game in the Caribbean."

He anticipates by the end of 2025 sales will surpass that of its current biggest market, TT.

The company produces thousands of unplasticised polyvinyl chloride (uPVC) framed doors and windows annually.

The material is favoured for being impervious to corrosion, its aesthetic appeal and low maintenance compared to steel or aluminium framed options.

Ortt said the hurricane-rated line's sales are on par with those of its other products.

"This line can withstand the forces of a category five hurricane and its testing exceeds the wind-speed range.

"They are tested in-house against forces of windspeeds up to 210 miles per hour and any debris contained.

"They come in two varieties, a less expensive one-millimetre (mm) thick laminate glass that's ASTM E 1996 Missile C certified.

"The other is a more expensive high-impact line which is 2.5 mm thick high-impact laminate and is ASTM E 1996 Missile D certified.

"All testing is done in-house and is periodically independently verified," Ortt said.

Domus also produce doors and windows for security applications and even energy-efficient ones which limits the transfer of heat from outside.

Apart from TT and Jamaica, Domus products can be found in Anguilla, Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Ortt said moving his manufacturing operation out of St Kitts and into Trinidad was a strategic one.

"For starters, TT has a large pool of educated people used to doing manufacturing. If you look at St Kitts, they're primarily in construction. It takes a different mindset to produce windows and doors. You have to be at your station on time and each person is part of a team and it all has to work together. It was very difficult to get that. I would say the staff here is as good as any in the world really.

"Secondly, electricity rates are lower here. Also, production costs generally are lower. We were able to get this land from ETeck and lease it on a 60-year basis.

"The other thing too, shipping is less expensive than it was in St Kitts and we have a lot of options for shipping out."

Most of the inputs are imported from Canada and the US.

Ortt said the company does not have challenges accessing foreign exchange because it earns its own through increased exports.

He expects its foreign exchange earnings to grow further as it capitalises on the Jamaican market.

Despite its expanding reach, the CEO intends to keep manufacturing in TT.

"There's no way we can replicate this factory and train staff and everything else. Trinidad is definitely going to be our manufacturing location."

Ortt said any growth in demand for products would benefit TT's economy. The company employs around 70 workers, but Ortt said the factory is designed to be scaled up.

"If we had the revenue base, if we could increase that, we could easily employ 400 or 500 people here.

"We have room to double the factory."

Chaguanas Mayor Faaiq Mohammed said the borough would benefit greatly if the company is able to scale up its operations.

"That's 400 people that could be employed. That's a lot of people.

"That's 400 families that would be directly affected."

At the end of the factory tour, Ortt said he stands by the quality of his products, as evidenced by the 20-year warranty.

He, however, lamented that cheaper (cost and quality) products were hurting his sales.

"A lack of robust building codes and standards in the region makes it susceptible to being targeted by large international manufacturers," he said, adding that while there is also domestic competition, "dumping" by these international manufacturers was the biggest issue.