#Galleryyuhself/business history in Trinidad and Tobago

[galleryyuhself]

Galleryyuhself - Seen on Facebook

WHAT WAS THERE BEFORE KFC.

Corner Independence Square and Broadway, Port of Spain.

Top left photo : HOTEL GUIRIA in 1895, after having been destroyed by fire. It was never rebuilt.

Top right photo : CHASE MANHATTAN BANK came to Trinidad in 1963, and left in 1980, after selling its shareholding to NCB, National Commercial Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.

Bottom left photo: THE NATIONAL COMMERCIAL BANK of Trinidad and Tobago occupied the spot until 1989.

Bottom right photo: KFC, their largest and busiest branch in Trinidad was opened in 1989, and still occupies the spot after 35 years. This branch of finger-lickin’-good chicken made the Guinness World Records in 2000 for selling the most chicken in the world and also for making the most money world-wide.

[galleryyuhself]

Street sale of coconuts was introduced in Port-of-Spain by German-born businessman Conrad Frederick Stollmeyer some time after he arrived in 1845.

Stollmeyer was also among the pioneers in the Pitch Lake manufacture of Kerosine, which was originally called "Trinidad Oil".

Stollmeyer had fled America where, as editor of a Philadelphia newspaper that strongly advocated freedom of the slaves in the southern United States, he was almost hanged by southern planters.

He landed in Port-of-Spain with the promise of a job as managing a railway company in Trinidad.

The investors, however, went bankrupt, and Stollmeyer had to find ways to support his wife and four children whom he had brought with him.

He leased some forested mangrove wasteland in Cocorite, cleared the land, and sold firewood to government offices. He planted coconut trees, and later started to sell coconuts for a penny each. The coconuts were loaded on donkey carts for sale along Marine Square and Frederick Street.

At one time Stollmeyer proposed to Lord Harris, the governor of the island, the possibility of organising and encouraging “small farms and the cultivation of provision by the emancipated labourers in the British West Indian colonies”.

At around 1849, Stollmeyer accepted the job of looking after the Pitch Lake holdings of pioneer Thomas Barnes, the 10th Earl Dundonald. They started exporting Asphalt to the United States and Europe for the manufacture of the newly invented Kerosine, which was then named "Trinidad Oil".

In 1883, Stollmeyer moved his family out of Belmont Valley Road, where they resided, to the Santa Cruz valley.

Eventually, the Stollmeyers bought other estates in the valley: Petit Curracaye, Grand Curracaye, El Guamal, Landor, San Patricio, La Sagesse and Fahay's.

Stollmeyer, who said he came to Trinidad with $5 in his pocket, died a millionaire in 1904.

That year, his son Charles Fourier Stollmeyer constructed a Scottish-style mansion at the northwest edge of the Queen’s Park Savannah. Designed after a part of Balmoral Castle, it was called Killarney. Most people still call it "Stollmeyer's Castle" even though the property passed out of the family in the 1970s.

Although the younger Stollmeyer was a cocoa planter by volition, he had inherited a concession to work parts of the Pitch Lake from his father, as well as Perseverance Estate in Guapo which showed promise of having oil reserves.

On his land at Guapo, he installed an antiquated refinery or “still” to produce gasoline for the ever-growing numbers of motor vehicles on the roads.

Eventually, Stollmeyer sold portions of the rich Perseverance oil lands to Kern Trinidad Ltd, a firm based in California. He died a year later.

What remains of the Perseverance Estate is still owned by the Stollmeyer family. It no longer produces oil, but the oil-bearing sands have been quarried for many decades for use as road-paving material.

Sources: •The Caribbean History Archives by Gerard A Besson •Writings by Angelo Bissessarsingh • http://archive.is/0lDs • http://blog.mailasail.com

[galleryyuhself]

[galleryyuhself]

History of SOLO:

Born in Princes Town in 1910, Kenneth’s father, who carried Serjad Makmadeen was the last of the eight children of an immigrant from the Punjab, India.

When he was still quite young the family moved to St James and he attended primary school up to the age of ten. Economic circumstances forced him to leave school and he got employment as a gardener until he was 13. Then he got a job as a baker’s apprentice.

He was determined to make a better way of life for himself. He saved his small salary and in the ’30s he learnt a small soft drink plant was for sale in St James. He had $350 and borrowed $250 from his friend Nagib Elias and bought the soft drink plant.

He got married to Khairoon Khan and they worked together running the plant. Using old beer bottles, they produced Cola Champagne and Banana soft drinks. He would make one or two cases of soft drinks per day and take them with him on his rounds the next day.

Serjad began to understand the difficulty of an East Indian breaking into the soft drink business in a colonial society.

When he first acquired the plant he wrote several times to various soft drink producers in England enquiring how he could make improvements. He got no replies. It was evident by his name that he was not an Englishman but an East Indian so he changed his name to Joseph Charles which quickly led to communication.

His clientele was now growing and he could not get enough bottles to satisfy the demand. He learned that a soft drink factory in Montreal, Canada was closing down and their assets were up for sale. He realised this would be the source of empty soft drink bottles, which he promptly brought and shipped to Trinidad. The bottles, however, had a brand name Solo and a logo with a pilot drinking a bottle of soft drink. Joseph made the decision to keep the brand which is maintained to this day, along with the distinctive heavy glass bottles.

After the Second World War and with demand for his soft drinks, Joseph bought an additional plant and went into the soft drink business as a full-time occupation. This factory was located at the area under his house in St James and had the capacity to produce eight bottles per minute.

By 1950, he had set up a new plant at the corner of White Street and Tragarete Road opposite the Queen’s Park Oval with equipment imported from the United States. This plant produced 72 bottles of soft drink per minute.

Charles worked long hours to develop his business and modified his factory so that it produced 144 bottles per minute.

His staff increased to 65 including his two sons, Vernon and Kenneth and he introduced four new flavours Cola, Grape, Cream Soda and Orange.

By 1958, Joseph Charles secured a loan for $1.8 million and in January 1960 constructed a new state of the art factory in San Juan on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway. In 1962 he introduced the still widely popular Solo Apple J.

He died in 1965 and is succeeded by his family who now own and operate the company.

Kenneth believes Solo has been successful because they have great employees and have maintained a high standard in their products.

He said they are always trying to develop new products as they recently introduced a Peach drink into the market.

“We look around and see what is needed, what you perceive what your customers may like. We try to have products that will fit the market,” he said.

The beverage is made with real peaches and it will come as sparkling and non-sparkling.

“That is what gives us the edge, incorporating natural fruit juices in our beverages, it just gives it a better taste,” he said.

Solo offers several products including Cola Champagne, Banana, Orange, Grape, Cream Soda, Pineapple, Ginger Beer, Sorrel, Apple J, Pear, Grapefruit J, Orange J, Apple Juice, and Peach.

He said the Prime Minister’s suggestion of Government working together with the business community was a good one as it can help tackle some of the issues.

“There are some challenges that we in the business community experience, in order to keep costs down, we need to get equipment in without the duties and taxes for exports and we need government’s assistance in that respect. Another issue we have is the demurrage charge and this definitely adds to the cost of our products.

“Sometimes containers stay on the port and it is out of our hands, because most times, the delay is getting the paperwork through customs, it is discouraging at times,” he said.

Kenneth said if his father was alive today, he would be proud of what the company has achieved since its inception.

“For him to see it go from the embryonic stages to what we do now, he would be very proud,” he said.

Kenneth is now running the company with the help of his son, Hayden Charles and he hopes in the future they continue down the path of success and also continue to keep their customers satisfied and happy.

[galleryyuhself]

History~Todd’s Ltd

Todd’s Ltd (aka The Trinidad Arcade, the precursor to Stephens & Todd) c. 1897 ................................................................... There are different versions of how this store became the star of the Todd empire in Port-of-Spain during the 1800s.

Historian Angelo Bissessarsingh wrote that Todd was an Englishman who came to Trinidad in 1852 and started business with small dry-goods shop along Frederick Street.

In an article headlined The Trinidad Arcade published in the Trinidad Guardian in 2013, Bissessarsingh wrote: “James Todd was an Eng­lish­man who had come to the is­land in 1852 and com­menced busi­ness in a mod­est way with a small dry-goods shop on rent­ed premis­es at 12 Fred­er­ick Street."

According to Gerard Besson, however, James Todd was a Scotsman who came to Port-of-Spain in 1838, ten years after he had started a jewellery store in San Fernando.

In The Caribbean History Archives, Besson wrote: “Another old Scottish firm on Frederick Street was Todd. It had started off as a jewellery store in 1828 in San Fernando under the name James Todd and Sons. In 1838, James Todd relocated to Port of Spain...”

In Bissessarsingh’s account, Todd accumulated considerable wealth from cocoa export as he had purchased cocoa estates, and also took cocoa as payment for goods purchased.

“James Todd ac­quired sev­er­al co­coa es­tates, es­pe­cial­ly in the rapid­ly de­vel­op­ing hin­ter­lands east of Ch­agua­nas and in the rolling hills near the Ca­paro Riv­er val­ley. As with most oth­er large busi­ness­es at the time, Todd's of­fered a line of cred­it to co­coa farm­ers that al­lowed them to take goods dur­ing the year with­out cash pay­ment, the score be­ing set­tled when the co­coa har­vest was brought in. Sacks of dried beans would be val­ued as cur­ren­cy and thus the mer­chant was able to turn an ad­di­tion­al prof­it from ex­port­ing co­coa. This ac­tiv­i­ty cou­pled with his thriv­ing mer­can­tile trade made him a very af­flu­ent man in­deed by the time he died in 1884.”

Besson, on the other hand, attributed the start of the Frederick Street business to Todd’s wife.

“In 1838, James Todd relocated to Port of Spain, took on a partner and went off to the sea, which ahd been his first love. The partner, however, absconded ten years later with the valuable stock. It was Jamie Todd, James’ wife, who single-handedly restarted the business. She bought some unclaimed crockery at Customs, and in the years to come,the genial businesswoman made Todd become a renowned dealer in china.”

The story, according to Bissessarsingh, continued this way:

“(Todd) had tak­en his son, David, in­to the busi­ness as a di­rec­tor, but tragedy struck when David died a year af­ter his fa­ther. The reins passed to James's grand­son, James B L Todd, who proved that he was very ca­pa­ble of as­sum­ing stew­ard­ship of the work of two gen­er­a­tions. The younger Todd had a knack for feel­ing the pulse of the econ­o­my and in a time when a new mid­dle class was emerg­ing, he re­alised that there was a need for cheap, el­e­gant fur­ni­ture at rea­son­able cost since hith­er­to, the best fur­nish­ings were im­port­ed from the Unit­ed States and Eu­rope and were very ex­pen­sive. Todd and Sons opened a work­shop on Cha­con Street, which used lo­cal woods culled right from the Todd es­tates. An­oth­er sub­sidiary, on Queen Street, was called the West End Car­riage Fac­to­ry, which en­com­passed a sad­dlery and black­smith shop as well, since this was the era be­fore mo­tor traf­fic. The show­piece of the Todd em­pire was the store it owned on Fred­er­ick Street. In the wake of the 1895 fire it was re­built com­plete­ly in sig­na­ture George Brown style. Dubbed the Trinidad Ar­cade, it was one of the finest es­tab­lish­ments in the city and oc­cu­pied the en­tire width of the block be­tween Fred­er­ick and Hen­ry streets, with en­trances at both ends. School­books, toys, cloth­ing and hard­ware were at­trac­tive­ly dis­played along the cor­ri­dor be­tween the en­trances. James B L Todd died in the 1930s, and the firm found­ed by his grand­fa­ther was forced to un­der­go sev­er­al merg­ers and ac­qui­si­tions in or­der to sur­vive. Old­er gen­er­a­tions would re­mem­ber the es­tab­lish­ment of Stephens and Todd, which in an­oth­er in­car­na­tion was called Stephens, Fog­a­r­ty's and Todd. These were names that once stood on their own as proud re­mem­brances of a pros­per­ous time in our his­to­ry but which had all van­ished by the end of the 1970s.”

Besson’s version went this way: “The Todd’s oldest son succeeded in the business, but in 1870 he died after having been bitten by a rabid dog. The two smaller sons, William and James, were still children, and Mrs. Todd took them back to Scotland for their education. An uncle named Davidson bought into the company, and the name was changed to Davidson and Todd Limited. William and James returned in 1892. William fell ill and returned to Scotland, and James Todd jnr. was the one to continue in the family business. On 4th March, 1895, the great fire of Port of Spain originated from the Todd’s business premises. It left 57 business houses and residences burnt to the ground. The damage was an estimated £750,000 - a mindboggling sum at the time. The Todd family, however, rebuilt their business again, and two of James jnr.’s children, Bill and Winnifred, took over from their father. In 1953, Stephens bought Davidson and Todd. Winnifred, who had joined the firm in 1926 and developed the china department of the business, remained with Stephens and Todd Ltd. until 1972.” . . Eventually, the company underwent sev­er­al merg­ers and acqui­si­tions, and was known variously as Stephens and Todd’s; Stephens, Todd & Forgathy’s; and Stephens & Johnsons.

Read Gerry Besson’s article here: http://caribbeanhistoryarchives.blogspot.com/…/scottish-bus…

Read Angelo Bissessarsingh’s article here: https://www.guardian.co.tt/…/trinidad-arcade-6.2.412032.119…

[galleryyuhself]

Business history

The Chinese presence in Trinidad and Tobago 

Oysters were arguably Trinidad's first snack, and Chinese immigrants the first oyster vendors. While oysters had long been in the diet of the island's First Peoples and, later, were a cherished item on the dinner tables of colonial leaders, it was Chinese immigrants who entrenched themselves in the trade in oysters. They harvested oysters from mangrove beds along the eastern and southern coasts of the island and even in Cocorite. San Fernando oysters were considered among the best, so much so that they were shipped from King's Wharf to Port-of-Spain. Chinese oyster vendors, like the one in the photo, could be seen with basket and knife, shucking the shells and adding a spicy sauce. Eventually, the itinerant Chinese men were joined by Indian roadside vendors. The trade began to disappear due to the health ordinances of 1970 and, later, the growing pollution of the 1990s. Oysters had long been a delicacy of the original inhabitants of Trinidad as evidenced by shells found in archaeological digs in St Joseph and Arima. One could say that oysters are Trinidad's oldest street food. . [ 2500 indentured indentured immigrants were brought here from South China between 1853 and 1856. Most left the plantations as soon as they could and became market gardeners, venders, butchers and shopkeepers. More Chinese came later, not as indentured workers but to join relatives or to escape poverty and war in China. -Source: An Introduction to the History of Trinidad and Tobago (Chapter 8) by Bridget Brereton ]