THERE IS no secret to the success he has achieved, Kevin Hendrickson says. It has been due to hard work and seizing opportunities as they arose.
"I had no doubt I would get into business," he said. The product of an outstanding entrepreneurial family, his father Karl Hendrickson introduced sliced bread to the island, leveraging that innovation to create a business empire, the NCC group of companies. Kevin, now 44, was born six years after his father's business was founded.
Despite that background, he says he started life as a happy-go-lucky youngster before completing his secondary education in Jamaica. But afterwards, attending St. Leo College in the Florida "bush country" transformed him.
"I learned how to connect with people at all levels," he said. "I felt comfortable talking with professors and people from all parts of the world."
He went to college a boy and left it a man.
He then went on to do an MBA but did not finish it. Jamaica's 1980 election intervened.
"I got involved in it," he said of the election. The pull to return to Jamaica at that pivotal period was stronger than the desire to complete his studies.
He returned to the island in 1980 to work in the family business and stayed. This has evolved to the point where running his own set of businesses. Mr. Hendrickson said his companies have a total staff of 480 employees and includes the Yummy Group, the Courtleigh Hotel and Suites, the Knutsford Court along with what he describes as, "some other little companies."
Entering the hospitality business with the hotels represented a break from the family tradition where the focus had been on baking and associated businesses, he said. Purchase of the original Courtleigh Manor Hotel had originally been intended as a real estate venture, which ended up being a successful hotel under his management.
The Courtleigh Manor on Trafalgar Road in New Kingston was subsequently sold, but after his father's retirement new properties were acquired which became the Courtleigh Hotel and Suites on Knutsford Boulevard, followed by the Knutsford Court.
His greatest satisfaction has come from the hotel ventures, Kevin says. His focus is now on the Knutsford Court, which is being re-positioned in the marketplace as a top New Kingston hotel.
After that, his focus will shift to his latest acquisition, the Blue Mountain Inn.
Arguably the most famous inn in the Caribbean, the seven-room property on the Gordon Town road in St. Andrew gained acclaim for its superior dining experience.
The goal is to develop the Blue Mountain Inn's potential to host corporate banquets and small corporate retreats, and as a day dining venue, he said. "I will start in another two to three months."
The hotel acquisitions did not come from some secret corporate strategy, he said. "I am always looking at opportunities and timing."
The critical issue in making a purchase is simply based on an assessment of what investment options are available.
And parallel with the expansion taking place is a process of consolidation within the existing entities. Management at Yummy is being professionalised and some functions of the hotels and bakery centralised to cut cost and improve co-ordination.
"I don't know failure," Mr.Hendrickson said with quiet assurance. "All my experiences have been learning experiences. There have been a lot of hiccups but no major negative issue."
At no time during the interview did he raise his voice or appear to be in a hurry.
"I have a very planned life," he says, "I am not rushed."
Being unflustered takes a lot of work however. "I wake up looking forward to the challenges of the day."
His wife of 16 years, Jackie, says that means he is constantly busy and the focus of his life is business.
"I am in love with the business," he says. "Anything I do, I am passionate about."
And the purpose of all the effort is ultimately to provide for the financial security of his children, Melissa, Kate and Alexander. "We work for our children," he said.
That is why his chief concern is that Jamaica should begin developing on a solid foundation and he does his best to ensure his children, "follow the straight and narrow".
- Andrew Green
