Lavern Clarke, Staff Reporter
Cathy Kerr, Gleaner Honour Award recipient and overseer of the Hendrickson's family business finances. - Norman Grindley /Staff Photographer
THERE is a little bit of the conservative in Cathy Kerr, 43, the youngest of the Hendrickson siblings, perhaps linked to her responsibilities in the family business as overseer of the finances.
But strong though her persona as a businesswoman is, it seems to be matched by her loyalty to the family that she has created with husband Ian Kerr as well as a deep admiration for her parents and siblings - evincing in her a maternal instinct to protect.
These two aspects of Cathy a mother to four girls and married for eight years would emerge throughout the interview, as she chronicled her involvement in the National Continental Corporation Group, a 50-year-old company built by her father, Karl Hendrickson, nicknamed 'The Chairman'.
She was educated at the same schools as her sister Lori-Ann: at Sts. Peter and Paul Prep and high, Campion College, and finally at McGill University in Canada where she too obtained her Masters in Business Administration. Though over four years her junior, Cathy was only two years behind Lori-Ann at school.
The two sisters found their school life to be a time of "wonderful, intimate friends, and wonderful freedom."
And, full of nostalgia, they also recalled their years of growing up first in Barbican when the Hendrickson children had a treehouse that they slept in safely; then Norbrook, when it was more cow pastures than houses and their brothers Butch and Kevin "grew up with sling shots."
Cathy returned home from Canada in 1981 directly after graduation and, like her two brothers and sister did before her, she went directly into the family business.
"I joined Kevin at Courtleigh; we had just taken over the property," she said. The hotel then was located at Trafalgar Road, and was more known for the club that operated there, Mingles.
She stayed at the Courtleigh for five years, but her experience at the hotel would give her the grounding for similar responsibilities she would take up over a decade later.
Her next move was to the NCC head office.
"Cathy was really the one who ran the finance side," said Lori-Ann, clarifying her sister's comment that she was in administration. But she was also heavily involved in other aspects of the operation, and loved the fact that she was there as the company sought out new challenges.
"At head office, when the projects came up you were seconded to work with teams," said Cathy. "I worked with father; he always had some project not all of them worked out."
NCC evolved as a company that is always willing to try something new, to take on risks - some of which have ended not so successfully - fuelled by the energy levels within the family.
"As a corporation we had different subsidiaries. Over time, some things were divested and others invested in," said Cathy. "The corporation was always changing."
Then in the mid-1990s things changed fundamentally in the NCC group with a redistribution of responsibilities that gave each of the four Hendrickson siblings direct management control over different aspects of the group operations.
The move occurred after 'The Chairman' who was then in his sixth decade, decided it was time to step back from his day-to-day involvement in NCC and cede the operation to his children.
He called it retirement, but as Lori-Ann and Cathy recalls, it was really his way of freeing himself to do new projects.
Butch, the eldest, remained at 'big bakery' the name ascribed to Continental Baking Company, the backbone of the group Lori-Ann was placed in charge of the Caribbean Broilers Group; Kevin got Yummy Bakery and the Courtleigh; and Cathy stayed at the head office and also runs National Packaging Limited.
A couple of years later, the Hendricksons' acquisition of the former Seawind became public it was one of the first projects to be tackled by The Chairman after retirement. And despite it being NCC's debut into the resort side of the hospitality business, few had doubts that the family could turn around the popular but not so financially vibrant property not after their success with the Courtleigh.
Renamed Sunset Beach Hotel, Seawind which is located in the Montego Freeport, Montego Bay, was acquired in 1997, and was initially run by the Chairman himself. But Cathy and her husband who has a background in construction, were involved with the hotel from its refurbishing, and have now taken over management of the 430-room property.
The hotel, a combination of the old Seawind Towers and the Freeport apartments, was repositioned at clients seeking a good vacation at reasonable price, moving away from direct competition with the big players.
"We thought there was a place for a moderately priced hotel. We would never try to compete with a Sandals and SuperClubs," said Cathy. "We knew we wanted a 'value for money category' client; we wanted to meet the moderate budget but still give good food and accommodation."
It's a strategy that has worked for the hotel, which employs 400 directly and indirectly, and maintained over 90 per cent occupancy pre-September 11. Cathy who refuses to give any direct insights into the business, said it comes from having "engineered certain efficiencies" within the operation and the synergies that emerge from the team of managers and staff. The beautiful property also helps to sell itself, she said.
Since the terrorist attack on the United States, heavy discounting atop a sluggish market has eaten away approximately 30 per cent of the property's income and occupancy levels have fallen. Now there is the likelihood of a US/Iraqi war, but the hotel is refusing to be detained by it.
"We're sensitive to it, but we are forging ahead," said Cathy.
In two years, 2004-2005, Cathy and Ian plan to add another 160 rooms to the near 30-acre property with financing from the banks, a plan that could give Sunset, which is already numbered among the big properties on the island, the title of the largest individual hotel.
