Wisynco managing director William Mahfood, in paying tribute to entrepreneur Kenneth Loshusan, who revolutionised the way we now (supermarket) shop, gave the hundreds of mourners gathered inside (and the hundreds outside and across the road) Saints Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Church Friday last food for thought. Thursday Food shares an edited version of his tribute.

It’s an important lesson, we feel, and one that ought to be attached to each and every supermarket list…

Born June 10, 1940 in Mount Mariah, St Ann to Vincent and Kathleen Loshusan, Ken was the seventh of nine children, with five sisters: Icilda, Hilda, Josephine, Louise and Hermine and three brothers: Roy, Gladstone and Earl. The family lived a very humble existence, with the parents keen on keeping their Chinese heritage alive for the children. So at the tender age of seven, Ken, Roy and Gladstone, along with two of their sisters, were sent to relatives in China to a village named Newfu. They went by boat, a trip that lasted almost two-and-a-half months. They were met by an uncle, who did not know what they looked like, at the port holding up a picture. Ken’s Chinese name that he was given was Lo Ken Gee.

This was a very difficult transition for Ken who did not speak the language and had to live in even more difficult circumstances than he had ever known. Ken would attend school during the day with his siblings and in the afternoon work in the rice fields — a very rural and harsh existence in comparison to life in Jamaica. The children were in China during the last three years of what was known as “the war of liberation” or the Chinese civil war, and were exposed to very difficult and trying times. They returned to Jamaica under extremely dangerous conditions, having been smuggled out of the country in 1951 by train to Hong Kong and then finally home.

This experience was to have a profound impact on Ken throughout his entire life. He always maintained with his own children the importance of retaining their Chinese heritage.

Upon his return to Jamaica, he found it difficult to integrate into the local community, as he no longer spoke English. Loshusan enrolled at St George’s College but moved shortly after to Gaynstead High School as a result of challenges. He would many years later tease persons about not knowing the whereabouts of Gaynstead when asked.

There was a side to Ken that many persons didn’t know. When he was younger, like many boys his age, he was troublesome and he used to get into fights quite a bit; luckily older brother Gladstone was there at school with him and protected him on many occasions. This later transferred into his interest in the sport of boxing, and his daughter Laura used to record all of the major fights for him to watch.

After leaving Gaynstead, Ken went to work for an uncle. A few years later in 1957, Gladstone and Ken opened Tower Grocery on the corner of Tower Street and Mark Lane. This was to be the beginning of their foray into the retail world as owners. These types of shops were known back then as coal supper shops, for besides the basic grocery items, the shop would have as its main fare: fritters, fried salt fish and Johnny cakes.

While they were building the foundation for what would be the retail dynasty today, Ken’s sister Hermine was attending Immaculate High with Yvonne Lyew. Lyew’s father had a store on Barry Street by the name of Sovereign. Yvonne was 16 and worked holidays and part-time in the store. Young Ken used to come by the store frequently to purchase gum and cigarettes. Needless to say, it wasn’t the gum and cigarettes that he really went there for. Yvonne’s father, having made the decision to retire, offered to sell the store to Ken and his brothers, and that is how the name Sovereign came to be associated with the Loshusan brothers.

By 1966, not only had the Loshusan brothers bought Lyew’s Sovereign, but on April 10 of that year Ken Loshusan, after a six-year courtship, married the love of his life — Lyew’s daughter Yvonne.

Between 1969 and 1970 the Loshusan brothers expanded their Sovereign franchise and opened at the new location on Orange Street. During this time, they also acquired Percy’s supermarket from the Moss Solomons and started Ocean supermarket that they later sold to the Moos. A clear pattern was developing where the brothers were starting to venture further afield, and the true spirit of entrepreneurship was starting to shine through on their various business ventures or rather adventures.

By 1970, Yvonne and Ken welcomed their first child Bruce. This was an extremely proud time for them and it was also a time when there were major changes afoot in Jamaica, even for the Loshusan brothers with their young retail business. In 1971, Melissa, their second child, was born and the business continued to grow. But as the conditions in the country in the early to mid ’70s became exceedingly difficult, Ken became worried for his wife and two young children and took the painful decision in 1974 to move his family to Miami where the couple’s two younger children, Wayne and Laura, were born.

Back in Jamaica Ken worked alongside his brothers to build the foundations for Sovereign and the Loshusan family. He missed the family terribly but he could only afford to travel once every three months to visit them in Miami and was only able to spend maybe a weekend or so due to the demands on him back home with the growing business.

As their business grew and the demands on them grew, Ken started to develop the vision for them to expand and move uptown. As his brother Gladstone said, “He was the architect of Sovereign Liguanea.”

We continue next week with the opening of Sovereign Centre and share what happened when Ken Loshusan became Tesco’s man in Jamaica.