NAME OF FEATURE | THE GLEANER | SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2025 8 they present themselves, MMS saw a niche in the market for cleaning and sanitisation supplies during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and took yet another important step to add value for its clients. While many businesses halted operations during this time, MMS boldly launched its Product Sales and Distribution Centre on its thirty-first anniversary, May 4, 2021 at its old headquarters, 14 Collins Green Avenue in Kingston. This new division paved the way for The Clean Store®, distribution outlets through which consumers can now purchase retail and wholesale cleaning, sanitation, sanitisation, landscaping, and pest control equipment and supplies. The first The Clean Store® located at Shop #5, Knutsford Express Business Centre in Drax Hall, St Ann, was opened on October 22, 2022. Others are soon to be opened in Kingston and Portmore. Under MMS’s umbrella is also Manpower & Maintenance Business Services (MMBS), that is committed to providing the best Human Resource Outsourcing (HRO) solutions to its valued clients. It continuously seeks to improve its areas of operation, with a view to ensuring satisfactory client and employee engagement. The Manpower & Maintenance Services Foundation was established in recognition of the organization’s commitment to community improvement through projects that promote effective corporate social responsibility. Its flagship programme, the annual Back-to-School Awards presentation, represents a partnership between the company and a number of its business associates through which children of Manpower’s employees who are entering high school for the first time are provided with needed supplies and cash donations to assist in their preparation. The Foundation also supports the Special Olympics as well as the sports programme at Excelsior High School. On January 8, 2021, MMS launched the M’Power Women’s Group, an entity dedicated to the “upliftment” of women “through work and education.” Conceptualised by Mrs Hinchcliffe, the Group’s primary objective “is to address issues that affect women at the workplace and motivate them to improve their education and upgrade their skills while on the job, either through the Institute for Workforce Education & Development (IWED), or other educational institutions.” In 2023 MMS made another major change when founder, Chairman and CEO, Audrey Stewart-Hinchcliffe, announced her retirement as CEO and passed that leadership baton to Don Gittens. An accomplished manager with experience and expertise in several key disciplines including strategic management and planning, financial analysis and business development, Gittens’ impact is already being felt throughout the organisation and in the marketplace. The first company in Jamaica to become a member of Building Service Contractors Association International (BSCAI), MMS is also listed in “Who’s Who in Building Service Contracting,” a publication of Building Services Contractors International. Manpower is a founding member of the Jamaica Association of Commercial Cleaning Contractors and also one of a few companies in the Caribbean to become a member of Cleaning Management Institute. From a small enterprise, today MMS’s employees number over 3,000 and the organisation serves approximately 300 client locations. It is managed overall by a Board of Directors that consists of M. Audrey Stewart Hinchcliffe (Chairman), Don Gittens, Faith Williamson, Leo Williams, Velma Brown, Peter Thompson, Dawn-Marie Brown, Andrew Lee and Joseph Taffe. “We are committed to the continued growth and development of the Manpower Group by building on the solid principles of integrity and service excellence on which the organisation was founded,” says CEO Don Gittens. “We are also proud of the fact that many of our services, including training, are now customised for the specific needs and convenience of our customers. At the same time, we are also mindful of the environment in which we operate and the need to uphold industry standards, while reducing our own carbon footprint for the good of the planet. Our focus is not only on expansion and profit-making but on ensuring that we continue to develop an organisation of which all stakeholders can be proud,” he added. Former Prime Minister the Most Hon. P.J. Patterson along with Chairman and former CEO of MMS, M. Audrey Stewart Hinchcliffe, cut the ribbon at the official opening of Manpower Centre, the company’s headquarters at 1 Eureka Road in Kingston, on May 12, 2005. MMS 35TH ANNIVERSARY FEATURE
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUzNTI=