New NWC Commercial Office Opens in Mo-Bay

The new St. James/Trelawny commercial office of the National Water Commission (NWC) was opened by Custos of St. James, Clarence Nelson, yesterday (November 19).
Established at a cost of $4 million, the office is located on Lower Bevin Avenue, in Montego Bay. The facility will save the NWC some $3 million per year in rental cost.
President of the NWC, E. G. Hunter told JIS News that rental was a big cost factor with the Commission, hence a strategy to improve profit margins was put in place.
“One of the objectives we set ourselves in the restructuring exercise, was that we would grow our profit margin by reducing cost, and one of the big cost elements in the Commission was rental of properties and premises,” he said.
“After examining this, we decided that we were going to give up the rented premises in Falmouth, St. James and Ocho Rios, and we are presently consolidating our two offices in Mandeville into one office. So moving out of rented premises into our own premises is part of the strategy to grow our profit margin,” Mr. Hunter added.
Meanwhile, Area Manager of NWC (St. James and Trelawny), Mark Barnett told JIS News that the establishment of the new office was a direct component of a three-year improvement programme of the NWC to be more cost-effective.
“The whole concept as it relates to the office, is to allow collection agencies to do most of our collections and so leave the office free to deal predominantly with complaints and the day-to-day operations like disconnections, news that people may require, and the regular walk-in customers,” Mr. Barnett said. He noted that the new location was far more adequate in terms of parking and that for customers who could not manage the long walk to the office, a shuttle service from the main gate would be provided.