Entrepreneurs of St Vincent and the Grenadines – Ormiston Arnold “Ken” Boyea

By Luke Browne Fri, May 23, 2014

The title of a front page story that was carried in The News newspaper on October 18, 1996 simply said “Boyea is the best.” The article was about Ormiston Arnold “Ken” Boyea, who had just earned the distinction of being named the first ever Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. Mr Boyea emerged victorious from a very competitive field of contenders. He beat out a number of top regional business leaders on his way to the crown. Ken made his country proud – it was a moment of glory for St Vincent and the Grenadines.{{more}}

Mr Boyea was showered with praise from all quarters for his singular achievement. The Searchlight and The Vincentian newspapers of the same week also carried stories of his success and described him in the most glowing terms. After all, he had accomplished no mean feat.

The award-winning entrepreneur was at that time the Managing Director of the East Caribbean Flour Mills which is otherwise informally known as the Eastern Caribbean Group of Companies (ECGC). Mr Boyea helped ECGC to become one of the most successful companies in the OECS. Ken also owned KFC (St. Vincent) Ltd, which had a reputation for exceptional service and great taste. All this was the handiwork of a man from Byrea Hill.

O. A. Boyea is the son of the late St Clair Boyea and Aletha Boyea née Gonsalves. He was born in the countryside on December 5, 1937 and his background predisposed him to entrepreneurship – his parents had a farm, a large shop and were involved in trucking. Ken attributes his success to the values that his parents, particularly his father, instilled in him.

Ken attended the St Vincent Grammar School after he finished primary school. He did not exert himself too much in the classroom but he played cricket for the school’s first division team and was reportedly popular with the High School girls. He was a wicketkeeper batsman and also played club cricket for Melbourne alongside the likes of F. O. Mason. He had some difficulty keeping wicket to Mr Mason’s hostile fast bowling and at least on one occasion he had to give up the gloves. Later on, as an adult, Ken represented St Vincent and the Grenadines in cricket at the senior level. He was also a National Lawn Tennis Doubles Champion (in partnership with Allie Lynch) and a cycling enthusiast.

Ken’s national cricket birth only took place after he had returned from university in the United Kingdom, where he must have honed his cricket skills while he studied Mechanical Engineering. He had left Grammar School in 1955 and then migrated to England. He worked his way through university in order not to impose a financial burden on his parents.

It was in England that he acquired the nickname “Ken”, which was rather more pleasant than his Grammar School play name – “Bouch,” which he earned for an interesting reason, as outlined by Kenneth John in his column in The Vincentian of November 1, 1996.

Ken said that the British had a strong hands-on culture while he was a student and that this culture persisted until the Thatcher years. He stayed on in the UK for some time after he graduated with his engineering degree and was involved in research on a high speed train project. He returned home in 1969 and took up the post of Chief Engineer at VINLEC (St Vincent Electricity Services Ltd) when that utility company was wholly owned by the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC). The CDC also owned corresponding electricity companies in other OECS countries and Mr. Boyea worked for a while in Montserrat. Ken moved through the ranks and became the General Manager of VINLEC. He served in that position until he was recruited by P. H. Veira to manage the East Caribbean Flour Mills which began operation in 1977.

Mr Joel Providence, the CEO of Coreas Hazells Inc, sang Boyea’s praises in a short article that was published in two local newspapers during the season when ECGC was celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2012. Mr Providence said that Ken “engineered the operational growth and development” of ECGC and “knew the mechanics of the industry along its entire value chain.” The Coreas CEO went on to describe Ken as an “astute negotiator at every level – from trade union leaders, to longshoremen, to bakers, to grain suppliers, to bankers, to investors, to prime ministers and presidents.”

The depiction of Ken Boyea by Joel Providence may be paraphrased thus:

Ken had a very strong fixation on the production of quality goods and saw no reason why a small enterprise in our part of the world could not compete on the international stage. He had a clear and unique vision for ECGC and he pursued that vision of excellence with the help of a magnificent team. He tapped into the local talent pool in the sure and certain knowledge that an “expert” was not by definition someone from abroad with a light complexion. Mr. Boyea was held in high regard by his workers and they generally called him “Chief.” The Chief improved the conditions of the work and provided benefits for employees – subsidised meals, free transportation between designated points, training and health and safety enhancements. Mr Boyea had an open door policy with respect to his employees and this allowed for a two way exchange of views on business and life issues. He was in tune with all parties to the manufacturing process and had a special ability to come up with sensible suggestions and solutions for problems. The Chief played cricket and table tennis with staff after hours when time permitted and he was no stranger to the lunchtime domino table.

Ken Boyea is an outstanding Vincentian who shaped and defined the ECGC that we know today. Unfortunately, Mr Boyea and ECGC went their separate ways on acrimonious terms in 1997 and subsequently were opposing parties in a legal battle that played out in the courts to a stalemate settlement.

Ken was simultaneously the General Manager of ECGC and the owner of St. Clair Investments Ltd, his holding company, which was named after his father, for a long time. St. Clair Investments Ltd was established on September 14, 1983 and KFC (St. Vincent) Ltd was subsequently incorporated as its subsidiary on May 8, 1986. KFC has been going non-stop for almost 30 years and has moved from having a single outlet to having three outlets and a Pizza Hut restaurant. KFC and Pizza Hut have a common international owner – Yum! (a fortune 500 company). Ken often led by example. It was not beneath him to help out by cleaning tables at a KFC restaurant or, more recently, to help clean up the mess that was created on KFC Kingstown compounds by the Christmas Eve rains.

St. Clair Investments has a number of related companies. Two of its other subsidiaries are W. J. Abbotts and Sons Ltd (which is involved in shipping and is an agent for Mitsubishi Motors) and Fine Foods Ltd. St. Clair Investments also has a 43% stake in Boyea Holdings Ltd. in which several of Ken’s siblings are also shareholders. Fine Foods Ltd. was the parent company for Aunt Jobe’s Market (a supermarket which Ken opened on his father’s birthday in 2005 in Kingstown with the objectives of lowering the cost of living and increasing product variety in mind). He joked at the opening ceremony that politicians tend to listen to supermarket owners and that he was therefore finally qualified to be heard.

The truth of the matter is that Ken was once himself a politician and a parliamentarian. He was an overwhelmingly successful candidate for the ULP in the 1998 general elections and he served as an Opposition MP until 2001. He ran in the 2001 elections as a candidate for the People’s Progressive Movement (of which he was a co-founder and leader), but he lost his seat and did not enjoy much political success otherwise – the party mustered a mere 2.6 per cent of the vote. The People’s Progressive Movement did not contest any further elections and is at a standstill.

Aunt Jobe’s Market opened a second branch in Arnos Vale on September 17, 2010. The supermarkets were managed by Ken’s eldest son, Luke, until there was a fallout in 2011. Ken has since made something of a transition out of the supermarket business after selling shares to a St Lucian entity that recently on sold those shares to Neal and Massy Ltd of Trinidad and Tobago. Mr Boyea still has a shareholding interest in the supermarket company and is also one of its landlords.

Ken had an insatiable appetite for risk and he financed many of his ventures with collateralized loans. He had a lot of property but very little cash since he was always onto something new. Mr Boyea was involved in a few joint ventures with Bertille “Silky” DaSilva.

Ken Boyea was not, and is not, only interested in the growth of his companies. He also has an eye on private sector development in the broad sense and has worked towards that end. He was the first President of the National Development Foundation, which came into being on October 26, 1983 and he was appointed President of the Board of Trustees of the Caribbean Enterprise Foundation in the 1990s. Ken was a Director of the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce.

Mr Boyea believes that we need a more enabling environment for young entrepreneurs and plans to help remove some of the financing obstacles faced by them. The veteran businessman said that far too often university graduates with bright ideas are unable to access start-up capital because they do not satisfy burdensome collateral requirements. He is adamant that success in business should not be the result of a birthright or inheritance. Equally, he would like to see more people using University education as a business tool and not an end in itself or as a means to secure a comfortable job as a civil servant.

Ken was a shareholder and Director of CIBC West Indies Holdings Ltd.; he was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of UWI Cave Hill’s Centre for Management Development (Eastern Caribbean); and he has served several other regional and international organisations.

Mr Boyea was a Director of Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007. He said at a tourism event that was held on July 4, 2006 that he would like to see SVG become a unique and unforgettable tourist destination. He called for the development of a marquee hotel on mainland St Vincent with large conference room facilities.

Ormiston Boyea has received much acclaim because of his commitment to the highest standards of business development. He is a hard-working individual who created and successfully sustained growing business ventures. Ken is a very modern businessman with a touch of class, a flair for organisation and legendary management proficiency. Mr Boyea has done well. This is not to say that he had no difficulties, or that he made no mistakes and committed no transgressions, or that he was immune to criticism. Far from it. He has, in fact, experienced some agonizing moments, but he took everything in stride, overcame the difficulties and challenges by sheer Herculean strength and force of character, and marched on. He is still marching, since he has decided to postpone his retirement so that he could sort out some threatening issues before he hands over the reins. The 76-year-old Chief is still in command.