Georgetown: The Farfan and Mendes Group of Companies officially opened its Corporate Headquarters and Showroom in Providence, East Bank Demerara (EBD) at a simple ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday.The net cost, inclusive of the building and land, amounted to $1 billion; with the cost for the construction of the building being $850 million while the development of the land was an estimated $150 million.
With this bigger and better location, the Farfan and Mendes Group of Company will be offering a wide range of products and services including portable sawmill; woodworking tools and equipment, wire ropes, rigging accessories, industrial hoses, among others, all in one convenient location.
Some of the quality brands the company boasts include Stihl, Viking, Motan, Biro, Delta, Wood-Mizer, CRC, among others at affordable prices.
With this new location, there is more space to facilitate customer parking – a feature which the original Georgetown branch did not posses.
At its headquarters, the parking lot can facilitate up to 60 customers. Also, there is enough space within the compound for trucks to upload and unload their cargo when necessary.
The Farfan and Mendes Group of Company was formed in 1967 when Derek Mendes, a Sales Representative of FT Farfan and Sons Limited in Trinidad, partnered with the Trinidadian Company.
In 1972, the company moved from the rented premises in Harel Street to the Urquhart Street, Cummingsburg location, which is currently the company’s Georgetown branch.
As it continued to expand its line of products and services, the company opened its subsidiary Mines Services Limited in 1992 in Providence.
Thereafter, a third outlet was commissioned on High Street, Georgetown, to meet the growing demand for its alternative energy department.
In 1967, Farfan and Mendes Limited helped to introduce and pioneer the use of chain saws in Guyana, through demonstrations and a training programme sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). From that time onward, the name Farfan and Mendes has become synonymous with the timber industry in Guyana.
In the 1990’s, Farfan and Mendes evolved into a reliable supplier of industrial equipment, including machinery for the timber industry, the wood working industry and the agricultural industry, as well as chemical fogging equipment, power tools, tyres for most types of vehicles, pulling and lifting systems, among others.
With the establishment of Mines Services Limited, the company was able to offer industrial tyre repair and truck wheel alignment, and to manufacture wire rope slings and hydraulic and industrial hose to the specifications of the individual customer.
Today, Farfan and Mendes is involved in a joint venture with Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development (IIC) in the Iwokrama Logging and Sawmill Project which aims to develop more sustainable practices in the timber industry.
Techniques for improving logging and processing efficiencies and the production of value-added products are the main focus of the project.
IIC will employ a 60-year cutting cycle, harvesting a maximum of 1800 ha per year (which is less than 0.5 per cent of the Iwokrama Forest) under a very selective harvesting regime which will result in only a few trees per hectare being removed and not creating any large gaps in the forest canopy.
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