Mood of the company
The Guyana National Printers Limited (GNPL) will be celebrating its 75th birthday next year. At its current age, GNPL, one of 13 that qualify as a public enterprise, also has seen its share of good and bad times, and survived many unwanted incursions and relationships in its lifetime. No one knows therefore what mood the company will be in at the time of its Diamond Jubilee, given that it has been living a life in limbo for the last 10 years, devoid of any real capacity to compete and grow in the domestic and foreign markets. The plight of the company stems from a desire to return it to private hands and in pursuit of that objective, the imposition of hard budget constraints by government to limit the financial exposure of taxpayers on whose behalf it acts in owning and controlling the enterprise. The hold-up on disposal is unclear and so is its impact on the company. This article analyses the performance of the company under these trying circumstances to gain an understanding of how it is managing to survive. To appreciate the conclusion reached about the company’s future, it is useful to know something of its past. Of necessity, therefore, this article will be of two parts.
A time series analysis of the company’s performance over a 10-year span reveals the ability of management and a dwindling staff to expand production in an environment that challenges its capacity to boost sales revenues. The analysis also reveals that the ‘termination by starvation’ policy employed by the Government of Guyana might be finally taking its
