In a move aimed at strengthening efforts, streamlining resources and building efficiency, two of the largest companies in the Bahamian construction industry announced this week they have joined forces and opened as Bahamas Redi-Mix with a plant in the Airport Industrial Park, west Nassau.

The new partnership cements a long-standing relationship between Nassau Ready Mixed and NP Building Supplies, one-time competitors turned business partners.

“It is ironic,” said Phil Andrews, Managing Director of the new company.

“Both of us come from generations of parents and grandparents who started their businesses at about the same time, in the 1950s when construction first began to really take off in The Bahamas.

It is hard to find a major structure that one of our two families did not help build from the old Britannia Hotel to the most recent phase of Atlantis with nearly all the government buildings in between.

We hear stories about how they used to bid against each other though I think they were always friends.”

According to Andrews, whose grandfather Jack Donald founded Nassau Ready Mixed nearly 60 years ago, the former competitors began working cooperatively during the first phase of Atlantis, supplying concrete for all three phases as a joint venture. That was in the early 1990s.

Then Nassau Ready Mix, which had outgrown its Oakes Field facility, sold the property a few years ago and was considering re-locating and building a new plant when discussions began about the merger.

“The rest is a natural transition and a short history,” said James ‘Jimmy Mosko, President of Bahamas Redi-Mix.

The new plant was built on land Mosko owned in the increasingly popular Airport Industrial Park.

Both companies’ trucks got new paint jobs and logos and employees never missed a beat. About 10 moved seamlessly from Nassau Ready Mix to Bahamas Redi-Mix.

“We had a few who had been with the company a very long time and took the opportunity to retire, but other than natural attrition, there was no job loss and we hope we will have reason to expand,” said Andrews, though he is concerned about lack of major developments, particularly in New Providence. The Pointe, he says, referring to the mixed-use development immediately west of the Hilton on West Bay Street, and the exclusive community of Albany, are the most promising for large construction concerns now that ONE Cable Beach is nearing completion.

Individual housing starts are reported to be up, but there is little in the way of industrial, large commercial or new residential subdivisions or resorts on the drawing board for Nassau, Andrews said.

The company is already in place with a batch plant to prepare Coco Cay in the Berry Islands, a cruise ship stopover, for major expansion.