ATL at 40 - 'Butch' Stewart's definition of success



FORGET the legendary business acumen of Gordon 'Butch' Stewart. That story has been told so often now that school children in Gimme-Mi-Bit can recite it by heart.


STEWART... I get a feeling of personal pride to be able to say that no other company in Jamaica has provided more opportunities for the people who work with them to grow and progress through overseas training
But on second thoughts, why should we not celebrate over and over again the extraordinary achievements of any man? Because that is what Appliance Traders Limited, or ATL represents: the hard work, the genius, the best of an ever-growing team of talented Jamaicans, consistently achieving billion dollar bottomline, the very definition of success itself.
And all of that began on June 1, 1968, 40 years ago, with a man named Gordon Arthur Cyril Stewart, 'Butch' to his countrymen and the now legions of admirers.

Fedders air-conditioning

On the eve of leaving Curacao Trading where he served an apprenticeship of sorts, 'Butch' was visiting New York one day when out of the blue it hit him that Fedders air-conditioning units were very popular in the Big Apple, yet he had not seen the brand in Jamaica. Here indeed was an opportunity.

Back in Jamaica, he did up a business plan and submitted it with a cover letter to the Fedders people in New York, offering to represent them in Jamaica. Within two weeks they responded. The news was both good and bad.

'Yes' they would like to sell in Jamaica, but 'no', he was too small. Fedders was a humongous company operating across the United States and Butch's US$3,200 plan was peanuts to them.
"Well, all I wanted to know was that they were interested. I hopped onto the first plane to New York and headed down to Edison, New Jersey where the Fedders factory was," Butch recounts. "My plan was to preach my way into a Fedders franchise for Jamaica."

But the bureaucracy there was formidable. "They were just afraid to get involved with a start-up company," Butch explains. What Fedders did not know, of course, was that they were dealing with a man of destiny.
"I met a young fellow, Bruno Giordano Jnr, the nephew of the president of the company. He was my age and he was in charge of exports. We had many things in common and we hit it off. We talked the same language and I found that we had similar ambitions, to make Fedders Export the number one in the US. Giordano decided to give me a chance."

Birth of an empire

This Tuesday when the ATL family and their friends celebrate the 40th anniversary on the lawns of Hope Gardens, St Andrew, Giordano will be one of the very special guests. He and 'Butch' have remained fast friends since that day in 1968 when the Jamaican had pledged to the then young executive that he would not let him down, that he would make him proud. Now he'll see for himself first hand.

With 5,000 pounds, Butch established Appliance Traders on the first day of June, 1968 at Dr Billy Escoffrey's old, derelict office at Caledonia Avenue in Cross Roads. He had laid the first building blocks to the vast empire that would in time come to be the largest private sector employer of labour in Jamaica, and herald a new dawn in Caribbean tourism.

"I get a feeling of personal pride to be able to say that no other company in Jamaica has provided more opportunities for the people who work with them to grow and progress through overseas training," 'Butch' says. "It is the impact of the group on people's lives that make us who we are."
As a fledgling company, ATL had set a standard by which all comers after that would be judged.

"We made sure that all our customers would be so satisfied that they would become salesmen for us," 'Butch' recounts. "Not only that, but we also ensured that the members of our staff would get a profession for life. And finally, we believed in giving back to the community. Those today are all major hallmarks of our organisation."

To do that, 'Butch' insisted on carrying only the world's best brands" including Amana; Hobart; Tecumseh; Panasonic; Canon and, of course, Fedders, among others.

Exceeding earning projections

He noted that his accountant and friend, Brian Mair had made very optimistic projections for earnings. Yet in the first year of operations, returns exceeded those by 500 per cent and by the following year by 700 per cent.

'Butch' attributes that achievement to "the extraordinary work of a very talented staff and the support of many friends on a long list too numerous to mention in this space. But we went at the speed of light. When I sit down and try to remember all that happened, it's like a blur. So much was happening so fast."

In 1973, ATL acquired Webster Agency which sold office equipment and renamed it BML which was merged with ATL last year. That was followed by Caribrake in 1975.

Sandals is born

In 1981, the deLisser family in Montego Bay, the north coast tourism mecca, was selling the 52-room Carlisle and upscale Bay Roc hotels. Butch paid down US$100,000 on Bay Roc, now Sandals Montego Bay, but admits that had he not been a proud man and had given his commitment, he might have asked back for his money, because of the dilapidated condition in which he had found the hotel upon serious examination.

Three weeks later, he bought Carlisle, now Sandals Inn.

In a brainstorming session in Miami, people were tossing around names when Adrian Robinson came up with 'Sandals'. Everybody liked it, except 'Butch'. But he let himself be persuaded and Sandals was born, soon to change the lives of the ATL family. They now had an international operation which meant doing things at international standards all of the time.

'Butch' used to be away from Jamaica half the time seeking business in the Middle East, the Far East, North America, the United Kingdom, Europe and Canada, on grounds that "if you wait for the business it will never come". As Sandals grew, he was away even more often, estimating that now he spends only about 25 per cent of his time on Jamaica's shores, although he ploughs back all his profits into his beloved island.

'Butch' set the pace by perfecting the Sandals ultra all-inclusive (now the luxury-included vacation) concept in Jamaica and then turned to another of his cherished dreams - building a Caribbean chain of hotels as a precursor to an international chain.

Butch embarked on what he describes as "a decade of the most incredible development in tourism, starting in Antigua and Barbuda in 1991 and now The Bahamas, St Lucia, Cuba and the Turks and Caicos.

Miami-based Unique Vacations was contracted as the worldwide representative of Sandals, and with Sandals as its lone client, Unique has 250 employees working mainly out of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Jamaica Observer

Next up was ATL Automotive in 1990, selling Peugeot, then Daewoo and finally Honda, now one of the most popular vehicle brands in Jamaica.
The Jamaica Observer was born in 1992 when 'Butch' partnered with Delroy Lindsay and Trinidad's Ken Gordon to give Jamaica its 20th daily newspaper, ignoring dire warnings that the island was a cruel cemetery for newspapers, most of which had folded within the first five years.

The newspaper actually hit the streets on March 7, 1993, and this year marks 15 years of publication. Having surpassed its over century-and-a-half year-old competitor on weekdays, it has set its sights on becoming market leader on Sundays as well.

Air Jamaica

Air Jamaica, the national airline, known as the "Love Bird", was in dire straits and in imminent danger of crashing out of existence when the government decided to sell it. After several bids failed, 'Butch' Stewart entered the picture in 1994, backed by the National Commercial Bank - the Air Jamaica Acquisition Group, or AJAG. He quickly re-imaged the airline, introduced unprecedented innovations such as on-time no-line schedules, champagne flights and the flying chef; bought new state-of-the-art planes and rekindled the pride of the nation in the little piece of Jamaica that flies. Air Jamaica soared again. But that wasn't enough.

"Partnering Air Jamaica with the government was a nightmare," he says. "They didn't want to do any of the work and they didn't keep their promises. We just kept on doing and presuming that the promises would be fulfilled. They never materialised. For example, our debt-swap agreement reached in 1999 to be signed 'next week' was never signed."

And so, on the day before Christmas Eve, 2004, the nation was shocked to hear the announcement that AJAG had handed back the airline to the government. Stewart says he had had enough of the political shenanigans. It was a hard decision. He had put his life into making the airline viable, putting his legendary marketing skills and considerable business savvy on the line. And Jamaicans had become excited about the airline again. But all to no avail.

Yet amidst the disappointment, 'Butch' Stewart says: "In spite of the political hurdles, we showed the possibilities of what the airline could be. And yes, if I were called upon again, I would assist the airline. It is Jamaica's and there is nothing I wouldn't do for my country. But I wouldn't be caught again in believing that everybody is interested in the success of the airline."

Over the years, an unending stream of some of the world's most prestigious awards too numerous to mention here, followed 'Butch' and the ATL group everywhere.

Managing director and deputy chairman of the ATL Group Chris Zacca adds that because of its success, the organisation had been able to "invest and grow the business through maintaining a successful bottomline in all its companies".

"Our image remains one of high quality, high service, supported by community service which defines a mature, successful organisation," says Zacca who is in his second term as president of the umbrella Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ).