Barbados Shipping & Trading Company Ltd. has a rich history rooted in a colonial past, an agricultural economy, and a business record that spans more than 80 years.

Sugar Monopoly

The social and economic conditions which prevailed at the early part of the 20th century, gave rise to a number of alliances aimed at controlling the shipping and trading of local sugar. Barbados at the time was a British colony and sugar accounted for 97 percent of its exports.

During this period, the more than 300 estates on the colony were dependent on a handful of commercial houses to ship their sugar. This was an untenable arrangement for the six largest plantation owners on the island who then formed Plantations Limited in 1917. With its formation, Plantations Ltd. controlled the entire process - the production, supply and the shipping of the commodity.

Efforts to Break Control

In the ensuing years, the merchants were forced to take action since these planters were their most profitable customers and with such an alliance the merchants had suffered serious loss. However, none of these companies on its own was strong enough to take effective counter action. Therefore, from as early as 1919, informal talks on taking collective action had begun and by March 1920, such meetings had become formal enough for minutes to be taken. By November of that year, six major merchant houses joined forces and became known as the "Big Six".

The companies - DaCosta & Co., Wilkinson & Haynes Co. Ltd., Manning & Co. Ltd., Gardiner Austin & Co., R & G. Challenor and S.P. Musson Son & Co. Ltd. - came together to break Plantations Limited's domination in the market. These merchant companies pooled their resources, traded shares, created a Board of Directors, and grew in power and financial strength. As a result, the Barbados Shipping & Trading Company Limited was established with the acquisition of controlling interest in these six Barbadian entities. The company's appearance on the scene on November 29, 1920 signaled one of the most significant developments in the commercial history of Barbados.

Family Ties

Some of the most influential families in the island were involved in the establishment of BS&T. Among these were the Haynes, Sealy, Manning, Leacock, Pile, and Austin families whose ancestors had lived in Barbados for seven to 10 generations as well as the Challenor and DaCosta families who were of the fourth and third generations respectively.

The first BS&T Board was made up of the Chairmen from the six participating companies, or their nominees, and three eminent planters. Thus, the creation of BS&T, under the chairmanship of D.G. Leacock Snr., brought these two groups (merchants and planters), who were always at loggerheads, together.

Yet, within the BS&T alliance, these companies continued to operate as largely autonomous entities. These families, even though they had bought a substantial amount of BS&T shares, still kept tight control of their companies from their position of a BS&T director. From around 1929, the families started selling off a significant number of their shares which they bought nine years earlier. So, with each generation, the family control of the business became diluted, only temporarily solved with the admission of an in-law.

Tough and Changing Times

From around the 1930s, the social and economic landscape of the island began to change. Sugar's economic strength began to wane, owing to a sudden drop in prices. It continued to sink considerably and by 1932 it was at its lowest since 1645. This situation left the country and company looking for other viable foreign exchange earners.

During these tough times, the Board met to discuss the possibility of selling BS&T shares in London and/or in Montreal in order to raise funds. After much discussion, the Board abandoned the idea and BS&T remained securely in Barbadian hands.

However, the more than two decades which followed, 1940 to 1961, were no different from the earlier periods except that different conditions existed, most of which affected BS&T:

• Trade unionism became a reality which meant that BS&T had to deal with legally organised labour;
• The impact of World War II hampered the shipping of molasses and imports of goods into Barbados;
• Adult suffrage and representation of the people became a reality which brought about considerable changes in membership of the House of Assembly;

Of equal significance was the fact that BS&T appointed new directors who brought new ideas to the company during that time. Three of the subsidiaries purchased several plantations and the Group acquired Bulkeley Estates Limited which became the seventh subsidiary.

Decade of Reform

Despite its survival, BS&T still had many untapped synergies waiting to be explored. For all its success, BS&T was not being run optimally. Its subsidiaries still largely ran the organisation, each looking after its own interests. There was fierce competition among the companies in the Group, as well as the inefficient duplication of tasks and services.

In the 1960s, BS&T decided to address its problems. The resignation of J.H. Wilkinson as Chairman of BS&T came in 1961. With a new Chairman at the helm by the name of D.G. Leacock Jnr., BS&T sought to adapt to changing conditions by maintaining cordial relations with the political directorate and by restructuring the company. In the latter case, the company embarked on an ambitious, decade-long programme of intense rationalization, making for a more competitive company.

In 1963, the BS&T Board decided to establish its corporate headquarters in order to ensure effective central control of all the subsidiaries. This led to a standardization of accounting and reporting procedures and to the development of management information systems as well as the establishment of a personnel department. With these systems in place, the company became more efficient, and considerably expanded its portfolio to include the insurance sector (United Insurance), supermarket (Super Centre) and other retailing ventures, aircraft handling services (Seawell Air Services), agricultural and heavy duty vehicles (Tractors & Equipment), and hotel industries. Banks Barbados Breweries Limited, a major associated company of the BS&T Group, was also opened in 1960. Generally, BS&T achieved success in these areas.

Mergers and Divestments

Under the chairmanship of G.D. Bynoe in 1973, and L.J. Sealy from the following year until 1980, the decade of the seventies was an era of consolidation. Gardiner Austin's 50-year involvement with Mobil Oil came to an end; island branch operations mostly owned by DaCostas were divested; and Fort Royal relinquished the British Leyland agency for motor vehicles and accepted the distribution of Mazda and Mitsubishi product lines. That period also saw the inclusion of non-executive directors elected to the Board of BS&T to garner a wider cross-section of views.

From Manufacturing to Tourism

At the turn of the 1980s, with the efforts of Chairman D. P. Lynch (now Sir Douglas Lynch), the BS&T Group tried to develop its manufacturing base. However, with the liberalization of trade and rapid removal of all types of protective barriers for the manufacturing sector, this presented many challenges for the Group.

In 1980, one of the Group's major efforts to diversify into manufacturing collapsed; Building Supplies Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary which manufactured tiles and bricks, failed even after major expansion and injection of investment. Other BS&T companies of the time followed a similar demise.

However, between 1980 and 1990, increased investments into Roberts Manufacturing Co. Ltd., an animal feed and margarine plant, proved to be extremely successful for the BS&T Group. By the 1990s, the company continued to invest more in this business, forming other related alliances including Chickmont Foods Limited, a modern poultry processing operation, which acquired a 30 percent interest in Hipac, a meat processing and packaging operation.

Moreover, this period also witnessed the growth and development of the Group's property portfolio. The then BS&T Board decided to transfer S.P.Musson's trading assets to Da Costas and to make it (the former) the Group's property company. Its purpose was to upgrade the Group's properties for rental or sale. As a consequence, the DaCostas Dry Goods Store on Broad Street was closed for business in 1986 after 118 years in operation; that property was redeveloped into a modern shopping mall, which is known today as DaCostas' Mall.

Since 1990, substantial change has taken place within the Group; one of the most significant was its entry into the tourism sector. BS&T took its first tentative steps into the hotel business with a 20 percent acquisition in Rockley Recreations Limited, the company which owned Rockley Resort Hotel. By 1987, investment in this company increased to 51 percent but sold this in 1991.

With the acquired expertise in the hotel sector as well as the development of a skilled management team, BS&T made another major investment in the tourism sector through the purchase of a 151-room west coast hotel, Almond Beach Club, in 1991.Three years later, under the leadership of C.D. Bynoe, BS&T also bought the 300-room Heywoods Hotel from Government and renamed it Almond Beach Village. These all-inclusive properties, under the company Almond Resorts Inc. were hugely successful, and were part of BS&T's core businesses.

Coming of Age

Around the mid-1990s, BS&T found itself in transition and this led to the changing of its organizational structure and strategy. It was decided that the business of the company should be run along divisional lines. Four main divisions - Retail/Wholesale Food and other Consumer Products, Retail/Wholesale Other, Tourism, and Financial & Other Services and Property - were formed and headed by Executive Chairmen.

Evidence of genuine reorganization swept across the Group with the formation of these divisions. For example, the parent Board decided that Gardiner Austin would no longer trade, and its businesses were to be transferred to other subsidiaries resulting in this company becoming inactive. Also, a decision was taken to merge DaCostas & Co. Limited and Manning Wilkinson & Challenor Limited since a number of their profit centres overlapped. The "Big Six" had become just two companies: DaCosta Mannings Inc. and S.P. Musson Son & Co. Limited. Nonetheless, BS&T continued to invest in promising companies. In 1998, Hill's Manufacturing Company Limited was purchased and renamed Rainbow Paper Products Limited, a paper product operation still in existence today.

The restructuring process for BS&T continues into today since in this present environment only dynamic and forward looking companies will survive.