Joseph Cunningham, Gleaner Writer
Basil Phillips at Phil's Hardware, Constant Spring Road. - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
BASIL PHILLIPS, owner of Phil's Hardware in Spanish Town, was more resourceful than the average person even as a youngster.
But success did not seem likely when he was born in 1947 in rural St. Andrew in the midst of an all-pervading poverty.
But he says, "As a youth I always had the desire to do my own thing. At the age of about 12 years, I would raise my own little goat and also did a little farming."
And as a young man he got a job with the NEM Insurance Company.
"While at NEM, I would take crashed vehicles fix them up, and resell them. Again I found a way to make some additional dollars."
HARDWARE BUSINESS
From these and other ventures he got the capital to go into the hardware business.
"People need to use the resources they have around them to make headway," he said. "I used to sell some of the very stones around my yard to construction workers and made some money!"
Phil's got started from a connection with a friend he had who was in the hardware business and lived in the United Sates.
"While I was still working at NEM Insurance I saw a friend of mine and the headway that he was making in the hardware business, and decided to try this business too." He travelled overseas and bought pipe washers and pipe cocks and resold them locally.
"I would conduct my business from a little storeroom at my home in Ensom City after I moved to the Corporate Area."
As a small dealer, Mr. Phillips said that he had to abide by the prices and other operation trends set by the leading hardware dealers. He added that the big companies were the only importers, and so this created different challenges for his small company.
But even though his company was one of the small operators in the industry, he always maintained a consistent price range and made sure that he sold good quality products. This he says contributed greatly to his company's success when it was time to expand.
"I believe that I should make sure that the small man gets the same benefit from my prices as the rich man." He added, "I keep consistent prices all year round. I don't keep big clearance sales. I believe in consistency that customers at home and overseas can trust that they are not being exploited at any point."
That philosophy has paid off.
One of Jamaica's leading hardware stores, Phil's Hardware now has two branches, one on Constant Spring Road and at Twickenham Park in Spanish Town. The company now employees approximately 150 workers and currently sells 15,000 different items.
Referring to plans of future expansions, he said, "We have a dream of selling up to 40,000 items, with a goal of making the store a modern self-serve super-centre. We would like to at that point to include luxury items, for example, chandeliers in our stock."
Mr. Phillips says that the patronage from his customers was and is still consistent, "all because we treat them fairly."
