Glen Christian

... building a pharmaceutical empire

RECLINING in his executive armchair, legs crossed, Glenford ‘Glen’ Christian seems at ease with the world around him.

But suddenly, he slips his right shoe off his foot and gently runs one hand over the sole, probing, he assures me, for scars and bruises — evidence of his shoe-less and penniless childhood.

“I got my first pair of shoes when I was 13 years old,” he offers, in this bittersweet moment of reflection.

The sacrificial gift from his mother Evelyn, now seared in the memory of the 65-year-old founder, principal shareholder and executive chairman of the Cari-Med group of companies, has become a metaphor for the many journeys that this entrepreneur has travelled.

“That’s how poor I was.”

That may be so. But what remains striking is that the inner soul of this entrepreneur appears to bear none of the scars that usually accompany the rags to riches experience.

In fact, it is hard to find a successful businessman who shares Christian’s heritage, and who is more embracing of such a past. Moreover, this entrepreneur is only too aware of the paradox of his own experience with wealth creation: that the extreme poverty of his youth may have given him the edge along all stages of his journey towards success in business.

“I had absolutely no margin for error,” he confesses. “I was at the edge of a cliff and had no cushion to fall back on; I had no choice but to go forward, and nowhere to go but up.”

How far has Glen Christian journeyed?

Very far, in relative and absolute terms: from a barefooted

preteen market vendor in a deep rural village whose identity and location even today has to be contextualised — Wedge Well, which is near Bull Head, which is near Brandon Hill, which is in Clarendon — to being the largest supplier of pharmaceuticals in the region, and the distributor of some of the most easily identifiable brands on the shelves of retailers throughout Jamaica.

Cari-Med and Kirk Distributors, the company that Christian formed in late 2005 to take over distributorship of Colgate-Palmolive products in Jamaica, have combined workforce of just over 400.

These companies are housed in 220,000 square feet of warehousing and office space, on Lady Musgrave Road, where the corporate headquarters is located; Beechwood Avenue; and in the case of Kirk Distributors, Marcus Garvey Drive — all in Kingston.

While the Colgate brands of soaps, toothpastes and toothbrushes are estimated to account for 75 per cent of the Jamaican market, Cari-Med’s consumer division, which started in 1996, is ranked among the top five distributors in the island.

Together, Christian’s companies represent the world’s largest producers of pharmaceutical and consumer products — brands that are among the most easily recognisable along the aisles of pharmacies and supermarkets, in the offices of medical personnel, at hospitals and other public health facilities, and in the bathrooms and kitchens of consumers.

So powerful are some of these brand names that there are times when, in the minds of the Jamaican consumer, they have been synonymous with the generic categories they represent. They include: Dettol, Gillette, Duracell, Wrigley’s, Lysol, Harpic, Ajax, Softlan, Fabulouso, Blue Bomber, Kiwi shoe care, Behold furniture polish, Genie floor polish, Palmolive soaps, Easy On spray starch, Sudsil power detergents, Whitfield ointments which are produced locally, and Catherine’s Peak spring water.

Among the pharmaceutical giants whose products Christian’s firms represent: Abbott, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Sanofi Aventis, and Schering-Plough.

In the fiercely competitive world of pharmaceutical and consumer product distribution, winning and holding onto such plum and coveted brands as Christian has done is no easy feat.

This businessman attributes Cari-Med’s success to the effectiveness with which its meteoric growth has been managed, combined with his own willingness to invest millions of dollars in continuous employee training. The result, he argues, is a workforce that is not only highly driven, but is also steep in the ethos of customer service.

“The challenge today is to manage growth through training, cross-train and multi-tasking,” he advises. “You can’t buy all the experiences, you have to grow them and to ensure that they have the interest. People are the only asset that can build your business.Ideas, initiatives, execution and strategy come from people. In this scenario training is key. At our company customer service training involves everybody, even the contractor who delivers goods, and this involves training in hygiene, courtesy... almost everything.”

The spectacular growth from formation in 1986, as measured by size of the workforce — from three to over 400 — has also been achieved by successfully negotiating deals with manufacturers of the products that Cari-Med, and since 2005, Kirk Distributors represent, and involves, in some instances, wooing existing distributorship from local competitors.

Christian argues that ultimately, it is the manufacturers themselves who make the choice, based on their assessment of a matrix of factors.

“We are innovators,” he claims. “We create new realities. You can’t grow in a competitive business unless you are doing something different, and this is what our partners recognise in us.”

There is no doubt, based on the scope of their operations, the market penetration of the products distributed by Cari-Med and Kirk, and estimates from those within the industry, that the combined annual sales of Christian’s companies are measured in the billions of dollars.

But Christian keeps this key measure of the size of his organisation very close to his chest, arguing that public disclosure could vivify the competitive spirit of rivals in the industry, and hurt him.

“I don’t want to give the competition such information,” he says. “If and when I decide to take my company public I will do so.”

This declaration betrays the highly competitive spirit that is part of the fabric of Christian’s entrepreneurism — a trait, he says, he picked up years ago from his mother and first mentor.

The ninth of 14 siblings, Glen lost his father Franklyn at age three - Christmas day 1945 — while his mother was pregnant with younger brother Cecil.

Evelyn, with eight children, got married again to local farmer, Edward Mitchell “who came and fathered all eight children,” and bore him three more. Mitchell himself had three children prior to his marriage to Evelyn.

So this was the context within which young Glen was raised: a family of 14 which had to be fed, clothed, and provided shelter by parents with, at very best, modest means.

What Evelyn lacked materially she more than compensated for, by the lessons she inculcated in her young son.

“My mother was in farming,” he says. “She is actually the one who gave me my earliest exposure to business.She taught me from early to buy and sell because she was also a higgler.”

Though more than 50 years have passed, Glen remembers with clarity the ritualistic pattern to the business activities. On Thursdays, he would trot behind his mother to St Ann’s Bay market to sell mangoes. On Sundays they headed for Coronation Market on Spanish Town Road to hawk and peddle ground provisions, a journey that was preceded each Saturday morning by the five-mile trek on donkey to Kellits market where mother and son would buy provisions for sale in Kingston the next day. “I was about 10 years old when I started to accompany her,” he recalls. “My mother rode the donkey and I would walk behind her to Kellits market barefooted.” Like other villagers, young Christian developed the skill of multi-tasking: raising cows, and planting coffee, cane, cash crops on the 30 acres of land owned by the family, in addition to market vending. It was however, the latter activity that really provided Christian’s earliest lessons in the virtues of co-operation and partnership. “My mother had good business acumen for buying and selling,” he lets on. “What was interesting to me is that she would send me outside the market area to meet the farmers ahead of the other higglers. So imagine me sitting there with apron and basket and crocus bag. I was able to select the best produce and negotiate the best prices. I am so good at buying produce up to this day, that I can take a pumpkin, use my finger and knock it and tell if it’s dry or moist; the same with yellow yam, to see if it ‘chow’ or dry.” Christian says that one of the most challenging facets of his life as a child was attending Brandon Hill Primary School, located two miles from home. “Every lunchtime we had to hurry back two miles home for lunch because mother had no money to give us, and then hurry two miles back to school.” As a poor country boy, Christian’s early life was, not surprisingly, rich in anecdotes that are both humorous and, in retrospect, didactic. One gem that he willingly shares is the story surrounding his first pair of shoes – at age 13. The shoes, a reward from his mother for participating in the upcoming Easter concert, was being built by a shoemaker eight miles away.

From the perspective of modern Jamaica where shoes are now commonplace, it is difficult to imagine the excitement of this teenager at the prospect of owning his first pair of shoes. So the excited youngster made the eight-mile journey to Crofts Hill, on foot five times before the work of art was completed and ready for handover.

“The shoemaker had to measure my foot on brown paper,” he recalls. “He would beat and soak the leather because it was very tough. When I finally got the shoes the front was high and tough. I remember the evening of the performance, after putting it on, it burned me so much that I had fly off the pulpit and take it off. I never attempted to wear it again. I was disappointed.”

Christian also recalls the case of a farmer approaching his mother to give him the youngster — a strong, healthy boy whom he reckoned would make a productive farmhand, in exchange for being fed and clothed.

Again, the response of his mother served to reinforce the positive image that the youngster had of her.

“My mother rejected it, saying that ‘people only give away puss and dog’.”

This firm response was in keeping with the character of this poor but proud family that shared a communal household in which siblings were taught to share and help one another. For example, when an elder brother left for England, he was expected to “send back for others”.

“In my family each one helped one,” says Christian. “I helped to father all those who came behind me.”

This businessman remembers the role his mother played in pushing him towards education, because of her conviction — despite her own lack of formal education — that this was the only route towards a better life for her children.

Evelyn’s prodding did not go unheeded.

“When I started doing the Jamaica Local Exam from Brandon Hill All-Age School, the teacher used to charge five shilling per month,” he remembers. “I was so poor that I could not afford it so I used cow’s milk and yam to pay the teacher for the lessons.”

With his success at the Second Jamaica Local Exam, Christian, now in his late teens arrived in Kingston “to look job and continue studies”. Here in the big city, he stayed with an aunt at Kencot “in a little back room that was there for the helper”.

His first job as a replacement postman at the post office at the corner of Barry Street and Peters Lane meant that he could only be sent out if one of the permanent employees did not turn up for work.

Determined to find employment, and with his welldeveloped work ethic, Christian would “turn up each day by 6 o’clock before the post office opened, and wait until permanent employees come in and see if there is space. I wanted to impress the inspector.”

A certificate in the Third Jamaica Local Exam was required for a permanent position as a postman, so Christian enrolled for evening classes at Buxton High School on Victoria Avenue, where he studied, and passed the exam.

“They offered me a permanent position and sent me to the post office on Hagley Park Road,” he says. “The basic pay was five pounds per week, but with overtime I earned an additional two pounds and fourteen (pence).”

The job as a postman took Christian to communities like Olympic Way, Cockburn Gardens and to the Colgate-Palmolive factory on Marcus Garvey Drive.

“It’s funny,” he remarks, “I used to deliver letters to that building and now I own it.”

Christian’s drive for social mobility using education as the vehicle led him to apply to Mico Teacher’s College, after three years of being a postman.

“In the country my mother used to tell me that you can only make it with education,” he offers. “In the district, role models were headmaster, pastor, health inspector, agricultural inspector, and police.”

He was accepted by Mico Teachers College in 1965, on a three-year programme to prepare for a career in teaching.

Interestingly, prior to attending Mico in 1965, he was rejected by the police force because of his height deficiency.

“I wanted a career so was prepared to go with anything that offered me something early,” he notes. “Teaching was an option so I applied to Jamaica School of Agriculture and Mico, but Mico called first.”

The Mico experience was pivotal to Christian’s future development, because it was here that he learned some important aspects of living — the result of the expansive approach to education by the administration led by the likes of Glen Owen and Rainford Shirley.

Christian says he cherishes that experience.

“They set the standards. We got a rounded experience. They taught us social graces, how to dress, to speak, and to be professional. For example, we could not attend lectures without wearing a tie. They were preparing us to go back into our communities as leaders.”

Internship at Buff Bay Primary was followed by a stint at St Augustine Boys’ Home — an institution for delinquent boys five to 17 years old, in Chapelton, Clarendon. Christian spend the next 18 months here, as a resident teacher, before moving on to being a branch bookkeeper at the Cocoa Industry Board in Morgans Pass, Clarendon.

During this period, 1970, Christian married Marva Farquharson whom he had met at Mico. The young couple lived in Chapelton, with she teaching English at Clarendon College.

The combined salaries fell way short of the income that Christian felt he needed to make himself and his wife comfortable. For example, he wanted to purchase a stove with an oven – a relative luxury during that period.

He accepted a part-time job selling encyclopaedias and within a month was able to earn enough money to buy the stove. A full-time career in sales was beckoning.

“After realising the opportunities in sales, I bought a 1961 VW for $350 in April 1971. I borrowed the money from CIBC in May Pen.”

Now mobile, all Jamaica, including Kingston, suddenly became potential playground for this upward-moving young man.

Christian headed for Kingston in search of employment as a salesman.

Rejected in his first attempt by Serv Well, Christian returned to the country and sought advice from a friend, Bobby Watkis, a salesman at HD Hopwood.

“

He had a car and could buy us drinks and dress well,” Christian remembers of Watkis. “He whetted my appetite to get something in the pharmaceutical industry. I came back to Kingston and in April 1971 landed a job at HD Hopwood.” His wife Marva followed within weeks, and the young couple settled into a rented house in Independence City, Portmore. She landed a teaching job at Spanish Town Secondary. One of two sales representatives for the pharmaceutical division at Hopwood, the job took Christian to pharmacies and other retail outlets all over Jamaica. He was so good at his job that within six years he was appointed manager of the pharmaceutical division at this company. During his nine years as manager, Christian grew the division for which he was responsible from 15 per cent of the company’s overall sales, to 85 per cent. But by 1979, his entrepreneurial bug, dormant since his mid-teens became awakened. Christian saw a chance to distribute generic drugs — an opportunity that established companies like Hopwood could not exploit, because of the conflict it would create with the branded alternatives they represented. He acquired the Portmore Pharmacy located at Bayside Plaza in Portmore using a combination of savings and bank loan. His wife Marva left her teaching job to manage this enterprise. The pharmacy provided the springboard for the Christians to get into the generic drug market. “We saw an opportunity through the generic route into the business,”explains Christian.

By 1985 the Hopwood manager felt it was time to launch on his own and formally registered Cari-Med. The following year he left Hopwood to venture fully into the pharmaceutical distribution business.

In January 1986 Christian acquired a 33,000 square feet lot at 20 Lady Musgrave Road, with an old building, that he began refurbishing to house his distribution company. He needed bank funding.

“The banks had no confidence in my business plan,” he remarks. “The bankers’ attitude was that interest rate was high and people were selling properties to put into banks rather than buying properties, which I was proposing to do. They all turned me down except for CIBC which accepted the plan and funded me.”

Christian got busy visiting England, the USA, and Puerto Rico to hold talks with companies that he was seeking to represent in the local pharmaceutical market.

The first distributorship agreement was with a Canadian manufacturer of generic drugs called Apotex.

So, on October 7, 1986, Cari-Med began operating with three employees and a single pharmaceutical client company.

“Those were days of licences and quotas,” he points out. “But generic was less than half the price of the established brands.”

This new upstart in a market that is notorious for its vicious turf wars faced a multiple of challenges in even getting settled.

Some of the incidents that ensued made headlines in the media.

“There were raids on my business and at my house,” Christian complains. “But ultimately I was vindicated when the Government changed its policy and embraced generic drugs.”

From the very outset, there was a simplicity to the approach adopted by Christian and his Cari-Med to win the confidence of retailers and manufacturers of pharmaceuticals.

“We set the objective to deliver on time, to narrow the delivery time for people to get goods,” he explains. “We aligned our objectives to the service the customer wanted — proper inventory, built relationship with pharmacists, created alliance with the Pharmaceutical Society of Jamaica, and brought in professionals to speak to pharmacists. Soon the word was out that there was a new company on the block that was committed to service delivery.”

In 1987 Cari-Med negotiated its first representation of a manufacturer of branded pharmaceutical products — a Canadian company called Ciba Geigy but which now trades under the name Novartis. That year, the Christians sold their pharmacy and invested the sales proceeds in their new venture.

Cari-Med continued to expand its client list, and 1989, landed a big name contract — Glaxo.

So fast was the growth that by 1992 Cari-Med, which was operating in a 5,000-square-foot facility at 20 Lady Musgrave Road, began constructing a 18,000-square-foot warehousing and office complex at the same location. This expansion was completed in 1994. With this new facility, Christian’s company was about to enter its most frenetic period of expansion. “In 1995 we contemplated our next move and acquired 18 Lady Musgrave Road, the adjoining property and launched into the consumers business,”he notes. “This would take us into supermarkets. Prior to this we were in hospitals and pharmacies only.” The expansion was multifaceted: there was organic growth involving current lines as Cari-Med built out its sales and distributive capability across the Jamaican market. There was rapid expansion in the lines and brands of products from existing client companies, even as contracts were being negotiated with new pharmaceutical companies. There was also acquisition of existing local firms, as well as brands that were once represented by rivals in the industry. During the growth phase of the mid to late 1990s, Gillette’s portfolio of business in Jamaica was acquired. Today Cari-Med is the sole distributor of Gillette’s products in Jamaica, including its well-known brand, Duracell. By 1998, Rickett & Coleman, located on Beechwood Avenue, became the latest target of this acquisitive businessman. With it came plum brands like Lysol, Harpic, Dettol, and Easy On spray starch. Christian later acquired the 75,000-square-foot Beechwood Avenue factory and office.

In a business where margins are known to be razor-thin, and critical mass crucial to profitability, there has been no ease up in the pace of Cari-Med’s expansion.

For example, by 2002, the company acquired the Wriggley’s business,and with it, the popular spearmint gum brand.

However, the biggest prize was yet to come.

This deal — the 2005 acquisition of the business and assets of Colgate-Palmolive in Jamaica — created ripples throughout the industry in Jamaica.

Christian declines to say how much his company paid for the iconic brand and its 85,000-square-foot office and warehouse facility on Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston. The acquisition increased Cari-Med’s staff complement by over a third, and has augmented its consumer division to the point where it now rivals the pharmaceutical arm for which Christian’s firm is best known.

The Colgate operation is now run under the trade name Kirk Distributors.

“We did not lay off one member of staff,” says Christian of the Colgate acquisition. “In fact, we are set to increase staff by 30 per cent this year.”

Christian attributes part of the success of his company to the millions of dollars it has and continues to invest each year on staff training.

“From the early days I brought in professionals — the Mona School of Business and they take us through all the training modules,” he says. “I make sure that all the training is put into action.”

Contributing to the meteoric expansion is the innovations that have endeared the company to the Jamaican market and its overseas partners. A case in point is the 24-hour service that was introduced, creating convenience in purchasing for all. Then, there is the same-day delivery service, while the company, ensured corporate goodwill with its investment, in conjunction with the Pharmacy Council of Jamaica, in an accreditation programme of continuing education for pharmacists.

Christian is also convinced that his philosophy of staying focused has also played a role in his unprecedented corporate success. “ I like to run in my lane,” he says. “I like to know what I am good at. I like to focus on solutions. When it comes to people I do not pull on weakness, I pull on strength. Once a man has strength, I can work with it.”

In a dramatic break from what is the norm at privately held companies in Jamaica, this unconventional entrepreneur declares that his plans for succession do not automatically place his company into the hands of any of his four children.

“I do not believe that my children must succeed me,” he explains. “I would like to see my company go beyond the third generation, but I believe in the concept of the best man for the job. All of my children who are in the business report to other members of staff. I just offered shares of Kirk Distributors to senior members of staff to help us maintain our staff and give them security. Succession plan is important for employees also – those who serve should have security.” The children: Kavell Matos works as a supervisor in the credit department; Gregory, is an executive director; Kirk an employee; while the eldest Althea Stewart lives abroad. Even without this latest move to deepen employee loyalty, the company’s attrition rate of one per cent must rank it, by this measure, among the best in Jamaica. Christian says that one of his secrets to building loyalty among staff is Cari-Med’s policy of actively giving employment priority to family members of workers. “We encourage employment of family members of staff,” he says. “Once family members qualify, they have priority. This has worked very well for us.” Members of the senior management team, including Mrs Christian, the executive director in charge of credit, have also come in for high praise from the boss. So too have the others: Dennis Grant, general manager; Lanna Bennett, director of sales and marketing; and Gregory Christian, executive director in charge of business development.

GLEN CHRISTIAN AT A GLANCE
Born, 1943 Educated Mico Teachers College 1966-68/69 Married to Marva Farquharson in 1970 Four children Founded Cari-Med 1986 Conferred with Order of Distinction 2003 Bear Sterns Award of Excellence 2007 Governor-General Achievement Award 1995 Caribbean Entrepreneur of the Year 2000 Board member of CHASE Director of JCC Chairman of Kidney Support Foundation

GC

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