From humble beginnings… Guyanese man running US$5m garment factory in NY
From growing up in a poverty-stricken household in Guyana to owning a company in New York City that manufactures high end garments for top designers, Tony Singh still cannot believe his success could have reached that level.
He established the Four Seasons Fashion Manufacturing Inc. 25 years ago and has been catering to the needs of popular designers like Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Donna Karran and Isaac Mizrahi.
“Sometimes it amazes me that I’m running a US$5M company and wonder how I did it... with little education and no previous skills,” Singh told Stabroek News (SN) during an interview.
From his Midtown Manhattan factory, he produces high fashion women’s apparel, with some of the gowns fetching a price of about US$5000 while a basic pair of pants sells for US$1300.
He has over 100 employees but he may have to lay off some of them since orders were canceled because of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
His business was closed for a few weeks during the lockdown, but it has been up and running now, mainly to serve the frontline workers.
Singh received orders from Ralph Lauren to produce 5,000 PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) gowns and 10,000 face masks.
He also has another contract from the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC), a non-profit organisation, to sew more of the hospital gowns.
“The government contracted them (EDC) to give (orders) to the manufacturers so we can keep the factory open,” he pointed out.
For the past three years he has been getting orders from Ralph Lauren to produce outfits for the Olympics, which was postponed from this year.
He has put the production on hold for now so as to meet the needs of the health workers.
Being involved in charitable activities for over two decades, he also pitched in with his contributions of 100 gowns to help the frontline workers to continue their jobs.
He told this newspaper that while he was “not mak
ing money, at least I am keeping my employees going .... And I am happy to be a part of society where I can make a difference.”
Odd jobs
Singh, being one of the older boys of his 11 siblings, started doing odd jobs from about age 13 to help his family to make ends meet.
Although life was tough and he could not attend school, he said “one of the good things is that my mother sent me to lessons in the evenings.”
When he came to New York, he first landed a job with top designers, Tom and Linda Platt before starting to work “at a physical garment factory,” owned by a Korean man.
His tasks involved invoicing and shipping garments to different companies.
He also “watched what the people were doing,” while learning about garment production along the way.
He recalled that the owner would “gamble and won’t find money to pay his workers.” He decided to help him by going out and finding additional markets.
Then in 1994 he got the idea to start his own business.
He asked the manager of the factory whether she would work for him and
to me that she was experiencing an itchy throat which she claims was because of her exposure to the AC in the emergency ward and that she needed water or lime for the throat. This was the first symptoms she complained about. She never had a fever and she never had a cough. She said to me that she was always wearing a mask and that the doctors looking after her were always protected with their masks and their gowns but she said there were other patients in the female ward that were coughing next to her and ask that we bring sanitizers and Lysol because of them. I talked to her around 5 o’clock Monday morning”, Greaves recounted as was related to him by his late wife and her sisters. That would be the last time he spoke to his wife.
Greaves said that on Monday morning after their call, Donna began experiencing shortness of breath and went into shock before falling unconscious. Doctors rushed her to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). She never regained consciousness. It was also on Monday morning when the family received the results for the first COVID test done in Lethem that showed that Donna was negative. Greaves said that despite the two negative tests, doctors were suspicious that his wife may have contracted the virus after she had complained of an itchy throat and shortness of breath before falling unconscious. A third COVID test was carried out Monday morning and the results Greaves said, came back on Tuesday night as positive. The widower further said that on Monday when she was taken to the ICU, Donna was kept in an isolation part of the unit as the result had not yet returned and was then placed in the section patients are kept only after her result returned positive.
The man said that his wife was sedated as doctors said that it would keep her calm. He noted also that Donna whose blood type was O+ was reacting to the blood that was supposed to be given to her and therefore no blood transfusion was done. Greaves said that doctors told the family that his wife had fever twice during the time she was in the ICU which according to the doctors was as a result of the machines she was hooked up to. Prior to that there was no reported fever.
He said that he has also learnt that medical personnel from the Lethem Regional
Hospital who would have come into contact with his wife tested negative for the virus and were put on quarantine. Meanwhile, during the course of last week after his wife was tested positive, a medical team arrived at his home to have him and his son tested for the virus but Greaves said they did not take the tests as neither he nor his son was experiencing any symptoms. A seven-year-old niece who lives with the family however was tested but her results came back negative. Donna’s parents and sister were also tested and their tests have also come back as negative.
In regard to the statement made by the GPHC, Greaves said, “They are denying. I say if they are denying it then they are putting the blame on somebody else. I think they want to say she contracted the case at Lethem because she was living close to the [Brazilian] border but the doctors at Lethem are claiming that they are all negative.”
When contacted by this newspaper yesterday, GPHC public relations officer, Chelauna Providence stood by the statement released by the hospital. Asked whether the hospital is certain that Donna did not contract the virus there, Providence said, “Oh yes, we can be very sure. I’m not saying that she came with it (the virus) from Lethem but we can be very sure that she didn’t contract it at the GPHC.”
The dead woman’s twin, Madona Ambrose-Greaves has since posted on social media of her loss. “I will miss talking to you every single day…. It [Donna’s death] ripped part of me completely. I assured you it will be over and I never think this way my love. So many questions left unanswered. Hospital can be best and [worst] place to take your love one….”
Greaves noted that the family has since requested a post-mortem be done and is currently awaiting the hospital’s reply on this.
Ambrose-Greaves is the third person to have died from the virus within a week. She is the youngest COVID-19 fatality so far. Thirty-four-year old Abdool Khan of Bartica and 42-year-old Kevin Ridley of Albouystown were the other two COVID19 fatalities over the last week.