In an effort to supply companies and retail outlets in need of medical equipment and sanitation products during the present COVID-19 pandemic, Manpower and Maintenance Services Limited Group (MMS) last week opened its new product sales and distribution centre.

The new facility, located at 14 Collins Green Avenue in the Corporate Area, is being opened in keeping with the organisation’s goals for expanding its operations, and marks a milestone as MMS ends the commemoration of its 30th anniversary.

“We have been planning to introduce this service for years and we are very pleased that having just celebrated our 30th anniversary in business we can now start our 31st year with the opening of this centre on the company’s birthday,” Chairman and CEO Audrey Stewart-Hinchcliffe said, noting that the venture is a natural extension of Manpower Group, which has over 200 contracts with hospitals, business process outsourcing companies and other entities.

Included in the inventory of the new facility are over 150 COVID-19-related products and supplies such as hand sanitisers, hand soap, thermometers, masks, and other personal protective equipment, washroom supplies, toiletries, mops and brooms, chemicals, foggers, sprayers, dispensers, buckets and bins, gardening implements among other commodities.

MMS Deputy CEO Garth Hinchcliffe told the Jamaica Observer that the establishment, which is financed from the company’s savings, is a part of its strategy to diversify and strengthen the organisation’s sales and distribution unit.

“We are in a very good financial position. We could be much better but we strategically looked at what we can do out of pocket,” he said, adding that profit is reinvested into the business.

He further indicated that MMS not only survived but thrived during the pandemic, as its sanitising division saw an uptick of 30 per cent.

“We survived in terms of the main business but where we benefited I must say is the sanitising division because of the need unfortunately due to COVID-19. We were getting 20 to 25 calls a day during the height of the first wave of the pandemic. So we saw a major uptick in that side of the business where we didn’t have any before,” he told the Business Observer.

Garth Hinchcliffe said the Manpower facilities in Montego Bay and Mandeville will be transformed over time into retail and distribution centres and is currently exploring other opportunities in other locations.

Manpower is now a group of companies comprising MMS for facilities maintenance, Institute for Workforce Education and Development Limited, Manpower and Maintenance Business Services Limited, MMS Foundation, and Manpower and Maintenance Placement Agency Limited.