Looking at Clico’s history in St. Vincent

Colonial Life Insurance Company T’dad Limited entered the St. Vincent and the Grenadines market in 1949, operating in the early days out of the offices of the late George Forde. Its first sales representative was the late Thomas Saunders, and for several decades Colonial Life has served the Vincentian market through independent/ special agents, the last being Chester John of Grenada. {{more}}
In the early 1980s, CLICO strengthened its commitment to being positioned as a leading provider of top-class products and services, with well trained, highly principled, knowledgeable and professional sales and administrative staff. The decision was made to establish a branch office and Laureene Thom (now Kirby), who joined CLICO on July 1st, 1980, was appointed the administrative officer, while the sales unit was led by Unit Manager John Cato.
At that time the CLICO operations occupied two rooms upstairs of the Y De Lima Building on Egmont Street, at a time when there was, generally, minimal regard for the role and significance of the insurance sector. In this environment, operating out of facilities whose simplicity belied the company’s stature within the region, CLICO continued to position itself for leadership in St. Vincent.
This included providing more customer friendly offices, and on January 1st, 1986 CLICO moved to the newly constructed Hilary B. Da Silva building on the reclamation site and continued there for the next six years. Experiencing steady growth during that period, two sales agencies emerged and the operations once again outgrew these premises. As if by divine providence, the Thomas Building was constructed and CLICO returned to Egmont Street when it leased that building on July 1st, 1992. Even then, the customer goodwill enjoyed commitment and endurance of the management, staff and agents, and far exceeded the actual convenience of those offices.
Supported by the commitment of the Chairman Leroy Parris to ensure that Clico owns its own building in every territory in which it operates, initiatives were undertaken locally to locate a prime site in Kingstown. It is noteworthy that the CLICO Financial Centre on Bay Street brings the CLICO operations home, within seconds of all the premises it has occupied over the past 25 years.