Tony Wong, Business Reporter
President of the Rotary Club of Montego Bay East Winston McKane (right) poses with Adam Stewart (second right), recipient of the prestigious Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow Award, Lee Bailey (second left), outgoing president of the club and chairman of Sandals Resorts International, Gordon 'Butch' Stewart (left) during the club's annual installation and banquet at the Rose Hall Resort and Country Club.
The following article is an edited reprint from the Toronto Star's website, www.the star.com.
Gordon 'Butch' Stewart is considered, by some, to be Jamaica's most powerful man.
The one-time air conditioner salesman, Jamaica's answer to Britain's Richard Branson, is on track to become the Caribbean's first homegrown billionaire.
Stewart, the country's largest employer, outside of the Jamaican government, runs more than two dozen diverse companies, while wielding huge economic and political influence, as the top foreign exchange earner on the island.
But with his lilting Jamaican accent and folksy, self-deprecating warmth, the 67-year-old entrepreneur, who grew up on a beach in Ocho Rios, comes across as more Jimmy Buffett than hard-nosed businessman.
"You know, half the time I didn't know what I was doing when I first started out, man, but it somehow works out," he says in an interview in a Toronto hotel suite.
Many Canadians are intimately familiar with Stewart's products, although they may not identify them with Jamaica.
"Insane"
When he bought a decrepit hotel near the airport in Montego Bay, almost three decades ago, most people, including some of his own relatives, thought he was, to use his own words, "insane".
"I think if you live in the Caribbean, everybody harbours this secret dream to own their own little hotel," Stewart says. "Actually, it was a good thing we didn't know anything about hotels otherwise I might never have made the leap."
But after spending millions on renovations, he transformed the site into the first of what would become the world's most popular all-inclusive chains. He named it Sandals.
"I really had no clue," Stewart says. "We were basically just losing money every day. But we started to tinker around and eventually figured out what people wanted."
The hotel's first dinner service, for 27 guests, took four-and-a-half hours and the salad came at the end, but Stewart kept hammering away.
Sandals Resorts International (he was going to call it the less elegant Club Bay Roc, based on the name of the original hotel, but decided against it) ended up spawning an empire that now includes 20 resorts throughout the Caribbean.
Stewart owns numerous other companies, including the Jamaica Observer newspaper and Jamaica's largest appliance company. At one time, he owned Air Jamaica, the island's national carrier.
Not bad for a confessed beach bum, who skipped school to go fishing, and whose dad, Gordon senior, nicknamed him Butch, after a cartoon bulldog.
Deceptive persona
But Stewart's entirely relaxed persona is deceptive, obscuring the fact he's a master marketer, not unlike Branson, who's a friend, or Donald Trump - billionaire salesmen who have used the force of personality to become their brands' best ambassadors.
"He is one of the great global hoteliers, an operator ahead of his time, and he's still innovating," says Toronto hospitality consultant Joel Rosen, chief executive officer of Horwath HTL. "He took the Club Med concept and outdid Club Med. And when the customer he had in the '80s changed and became more successful, he changed as well."
Recently, Stewart was in Toronto flying the flag for his chain, which includes the Sandals, Beaches, Grand Pineapple Beach and Royal Plantation brands.
With the global economy in a tailspin, Canada's relatively sane economy has produced the company's fastest-growing market. Canadian travel agents presented Stewart with an award for favourite all-inclusive, his ninth in a row. His chain was also Canadians' top pick in the categories of favourite hotel chain and best environmentally friendly chain.
"Everywhere you go, there seems to be this doom and gloom, but Canada seems to be doing well," Stewart says. "It shows you the effect of a strong economy. We are seeing a lot more well-heeled Canadians at our resorts."
Only five years ago, Canada accounted for seven per cent of the company's revenues. Today, it's closer to 17.5 per cent, thanks to a Canadian dollar near par with the U.S. greenback.
Logical extension
Value-conscious Canadians love sun-drenched all-inclusives, where meals, drinks and entertainment are pre-paid. But they tend to travel to budget-priced resorts in markets such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Sandals, where top-end rooms can cost $2,000 per night, is not for the thrifty, unless your definition of parsimony is butler service and an infinity pool outside your room.
Stewart's latest property, being developed in the Bahamas, is the logical extension of relentlessly moving upscale - a private island with perhaps no more than 30 villas, similar to Richard Branson's famed Necker Island retreat.
"You know, after all these years, I haven't heard anyone say I don't want any more luxury in my rooms," says Stewart, whose company has spent more than US$200 million over the past three years, upgrading and expanding properties.
"I don't have any money left in the bank," he says. "I keep putting it back in the properties."
With villas including butlers and private chefs, this is not your father's 'all-inclusive'. That's a name Stewart hates, preferring instead "luxury included".
But there are storm clouds over this particular paradise.
Competitors, particularly in the low and middle end of the market, have studied Stewart's playbook and launched thousands of new rooms.
While last year was the best ever for the privately held company, Stewart's bold expansion comes as global stock markets are reeling from a massive credit crunch. Oil, though retreating from record highs, is cutting into Caribbean travel.
"I think it can be a concern, because you have less capacity for airlines to move people to the region," Stewart says.
Tough times
He's been through tough times before, and triumphed. Right after the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City, when hoteliers were reeling from vacancies, he claims Sandals' sales actually jumped, since customers flock to familiar brands and the Caribbean is not exactly a terrorist hotbed. Still, Stewart's reign has not been without controversy. He famously backed down from banning gays at his Sandals resorts several years ago in response to a public outcry, including a Toronto Star article that highlighted the discriminatory policy at his resorts. The controversial rule did nothing for the island's anti-homophobic reputation or for the Sandals' brand.
"We really didn't know better. We thought at the time it would ruin the concept. But there's a little thing called change," says Stewart. "It was the best thing we ever did when we reversed the policy."
The ability to adapt has been a Stewart hallmark. Key to his success has been the courage, or perhaps unabashed brazenness, to take a good idea from someone else and run with it.
He doesn't claim to have invented the all-inclusive, giving credit to Club Med. But he does figure he has just about perfected it.
"I loved the energy of Club Med. But they continued what they were doing and I decided to take the concept but add more luxury."
The first luxury all-inclusive in the world he credits to Garfield Weston, brother of Galen Weston of Loblaw fame. When Weston opened Frenchman's Cove to the public in the 1960s, the once-private beach on Jamaica's northeast coast was the most glamorous spot in the Caribbean, Stewart says.
"The champagne was free and they say you could literally take a champagne bath. I'd like to take a champagne bath."
That's not something Stewart has on his resort menus, at least not yet. But, over the years, he has pretty much done everything else. Every business trip becomes an opportunity for research.
Family firm
"When I was in Italy in 1983, I was in a hotel and they had a hair dryer in the room. I had never seen that before."
Within two months, all his rooms had a hair dryer.
Several of Stewart's children have joined the family firm. Adam, who was born the year the first Sandals opened, was made CEO two years ago. At 27, he's likely the youngest hotel chain CEO anywhere.
"I already started my business when I was 26, so I figure it's about time," Stewart says, when asked why he's handing over the reins so quickly.
"I'm really just an old fisherman," says Stewart, who sold his 138-foot Lady Sandals yacht two years ago for more than $7 million and is looking for a replacement.
And though he has the trappings of the good life he purveys - on this day he's wearing a gold Hublot watch you could trade in for a Honda Accord - he is not defined by it. At least that's what he tells you.
His absolute favourite thing, he says, and you almost believe him, is to sit on the verandah of his house "playing dominoes and really just chatting about shit".
"I'm a simple guy."
The above article appeared first on www.thestar.com on July 26, 2008. Reprinted with permission - Torstar Syndication Services.
