We thrive on a culture of honesty and integrity
– Group Chairman
One of the most successful family businesses in the history of Guyana last week celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its establishment with a pledge from its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer that the company will continue to use ‘honesty and integrity” as beacons that will guide its growth and development.
Asked whether he believed that his company can continue to thrive on a culture of honesty in a
changing and increasingly corrupt business environment Fernandes told Stabroek Business that he believed it could. “It is not uncommon for the behaviour of modern entrepreneurs to encourage businesses to compromise themselves. However, we have always believed that there is only one way to do business, the correct way.” Fernandes told Stabroek Business.
The current head of the multi-enterprise company that employs nearly 1,000 persons told Stabroek Business that they have seen the benefits of that approach because we are respected by everyone with whom we do business both in the public and the private sectors,” Fernandes said.
“Whatever challenges I have had as head of this company I have always been able to pick up the telephone and call someone with the knowledge that I will get a positive response based on the image of integrity which the company has built. This is the reputation that my father left us,” Fernandes told Stabroek Business.
Since its establishment on October 15th, 1959 John Fernandes Ltd. has significantly increased both the size and scope of its operations through the sustained consolidation of its freight cargo operations and a number of strategic acquisitions outside the freight cargo sector, including the 1993 $200m investment in the acquisition of the assets of De Freitas Investments Ltd which provided the real estate for the company’s Water Street container yard.
While several of the Company’s landmark business achievements have occurred since his own accession to its chairmanship in March 1993 Fernandes told Stabroek Business that he attributed the rapid growth and success to what he described as “the vibrant management team of our Group of Companies.”
Fernandes said that his brothers, first John jr. then Bunny and Carl Xavier managed the company during far more difficult periods.
“The period of the eighties with the restrictions on foreign exchange was particularly tough and it was only following the easing of those restrictions in 1990 that things become less difficult,” Fernandes said.
Less than three years after the 1959 registration of John Fernandes Ltd. the political disturbances of 1962 wreaked a major tragedy on the fledgling company when a fire destroyed the entire complex, its offices, wharf and warehouse. “While others waited for the political unrest to settle John Fernandes constructed a small wharf, office and warehouse and was back in business in three months,” the company Chairman is quoted as saying in his 50th Anniversary address delivered at a company reception last Thursday.
While the company’s most enduring achievement over the years has been the steady growth in its share of the local commercial cargo industry. It has, since 1993, made a number of investments in new ventures, diversifying into poultry rearing wholesale and retail distribution of consumer goods and agriculture, including rice cultivation for export. Currently, the Company is setting up an 800-sq ft Model Crop Farm at Timehri in collaboration with an Israeli company Shigam and with the support of the USAID—funded Guyana Trade and Investment Service (GTIS).
Despite its steady growth in recent years the Chairman told Stabroek Business that the company was feeling some of the effects of domestic economic difficulties. “The problems that we face at this time are associated with the decline in the export trade, particularly in timber and timber products and to a lesser extent, the scrap metal trade. You may recall that a year and a half ago there was a big furore among exporters because we did not have sufficient containers. Now we have hundreds of containers but not enough orders to fill them all.”
