THURSDAY, March 14, 2024 marked 56 years to the day that the late Sandals founder, Gordon “Butch” Stewart met Bruno Giordano Jr, the Italian-American man who would defy the odds to give Stewart the start he needed, leading to the Sandals resorts chain and Appliance Traders Limited (ATL). The following article, which was first published in the Jamaica Observer in June 2018, relates the story of that monumental encounter and the empire that emerged from it.

Men know Gordon “Butch” Stewart as the man with the golden touch, phenomenally successful at what he does. But the intriguing question is: Would the world have known one of its greatest salesmen of all times had it not been for the timely intervention of an Italian-American named Bruno Giordano?

Typically, Giordano is modest about it. Had it not been him, he says, it would have been someone else and only a matter of time before Stewart would have exploded onto the Jamaican and Caribbean scene.

“I regard it as my great fortune to have been in the right place, at the right time, to provide him a hand-up, 50 years ago. I have met few men as passionate, confident, and talented as Butch and I cherish our long and close friendship,” he reflects.

Stewart has a slightly different take on it. He never misses an opportunity to fully credit Giordano, then 24, as the man who gave him his big break in business, “by following his instincts and deciding, against the odds, that here was a man worth fighting for”.

Over the next half-century the stories of Butch Stewart and Bruno Giordano would evolve side by side, veering off at important junctures but never more than a phone call away, as if bound by one common design — to succeed at business and transform the lives of thousands of their fellowmen.

When Giordano and Stewart met one very cold, blustery morning in 1968 at the Fedders Corporation head office in Edison, New Jersey, all they had in common, it seemed, was their youth… and ambition to achieve greatly.

Adam Stewart building on the legacy of his great father Gordon “Butch” Stewart.

Giordano’s entrance into business was decidedly different from Stewart’s. At 20 Giordano — who was born in Brooklyn but grew up in Long Island, New York — started working at Fedders Corporation at the dawn of the new year 1964. His uncle, Salvatore Giordano, was president and chairman of the board and Fedders was one of the early pioneers of the air conditioning industry in the US.

When he approached his uncle about a job he had done only a year and a half of college, and the old man told him he could work for him but he had to finish his education. He took the advice, went to night school, and graduated from Long Island University in 1965.

Shortly after, Giordano married his high school sweetheart and the couple had two children before divorcing later. To help get over the disappointment he plunged himself into work in the marketing department at Fedders.

World’s first manufacturer

The company was in growth mode and had evolved to become the world’s first manufacturer of room ACs under its own brand, but also for other companies. As Fedders expanded Giordano relocated to Flushing, New York, and later to Edison, New Jersey. He was on fire.

By November 1965 Fedders was selling a million AC units a year and had captured a substantial 25 per cent of the world market. Giordano and the team were continuing an impressive tradition of success. His uncle had been his motivator and he looked up to him.

Salvatore Giordano had joined Fedders Corporation, then Fedders Quigan which produced, among other things, armaments for the Second World War. He started as a barely educated floor boy in the 1930s, and worked his way up to become president after ousting Chairman Quigan some years later.

The company went public in 1940 and became a significant manufacturer of heating products. By the 1950s it went into the production of window AC units as well. Growth was nothing short of stupendous, giving it the distinction of becoming the number one manufacturer for General Electric (GE) and Philco, two top US brands.

Face to face with ‘Butch’ Stewart

Giordano was conscious of the legacy that had been his uncle’s. Wanting to stamp his own authority on the company, he felt he would do best in the international sales department and was appointed sales manager for the Caribbean and Latin America in 1966.

Two years later this fortuitous decision would bring him face to face with the indomitable Gordon “Butch” Stewart of Jamaica, three years his senior but a man after his own heart. The fate of the two would join in a 50-year friendship that changed both.

On the morning of their meeting the New Jersey weather seemed ominous. From the look and feel of things, one could not have foretold that a magical moment was in the offing. Stewart had written the company expressing an interest in acquiring a Fedders franchise in Jamaica. He had seen the brand all over the US but not in Jamaica, and felt he could change all that.

“He asked if he could come and see me and I told him ‘Sure.’ When he came into my office I noticed he was extremely confident,” Giordano said of his first meeting with Stewart.

“Although he did not have the finances, his passion, business acumen, and his confidence level were such that I said ‘Let’s go ahead and try.’

“He bought 38 units with his relatively small amount of money — US$3,000 — but by the time he got back on the plane to Jamaica he had sold all 38 units. You could see that this was no ordinary businessman,” Giordano recalls.

“Watching Butch at work was a wonder in itself. In the States, everybody became his friend. He even became friends with our Credit Manager Tony Distefano who had given him crap in the early days because he had no money.

“From those 38 units Butch was selling a thousand AC units annually within a year and a half of our deal. He courted every possible customer, including factories and schools, across Jamaica.

“Once he told me of a doctor in Ocho Rios who urgently needed an AC unit. Butch drove with his team to Ocho Rios and installed the AC that same day. His philosophy was that the customer always comes first,” Giordano recounts.

To put Appliance Traders in a position to deliver faster than his competition, Stewart also befriended the Fedders shipping and warehouse managers so that they would not hold up his orders. He worked with a little bit of capital but he worked hard day and night, Giordano testified.

“The same way Butch ‘Sandalises’ things today was the same way he ‘Fedderised’ us by emblazoning our name on the side of his car,” Giordano laughs upon recollection.

He laughed even more heartily when he recalled the time when Butch sent Oswald Green, Laurie McDonald and three or four other technicians to learn how the AC department operated. “They came in the dead of winter without coats. It was hilarious to see.”

In the same way Stewart was achieving success after success in Jamaica, so was Giordano in the US. In 1970 he became vice-president of Fedders’ international sales division and president five years later. During that time, AC sales moved up from US$3 million a year to US$100 million.

Tough times in Jamaica

Although engrossed in work, Giordano was not too busy to court a wonderful woman, Marcia, whom he had met through a friend. They tied the knot four years later in 1974. He has two sons by his previous wife and a daughter by Marcia.

In 1978 he was appointed vice-president for marketing for the entire Fedders Corporation, which now had representatives and licensees in eight countries — including Jamaica where things had taken a decided turn for the worse economically.

Foreign exchange supply was low and hard to come by and import duty was high. From shipping complete units to ATL, Fedders was sending what they called “knockdown” units, which ATL would assemble in Jamaica.

“That was part of the genius of Butch Stewart and how he survived in the 1970s,” says Giordano.

In that same year he appointed Stewart the Fedders distributor for South Florida and gave him start-up funds of US$27,000 because of the shortage in Jamaica. Here again he saw the magic on display.

As Giordano recalls it: “We had never been able to get mega stores like Burdines and Jordan Marsh to carry the Fedders brand of AC. Butch made it his business to get to know the man who purchased ACs for Burdines.

“At that time he had a boat, and he would take the purchasing guy out on his boat. They became good friends and, before long, Fedders was the number one brand AC being sold through Burdines. Butch would come two weeks every month, visiting with the dealers, and soon he became one of the leading sellers of Fedders in the US.”

End of a fairytale

For Giordano, the Fedders fairytale ended in 1979 when, convinced he could go no further in the company, he left to establish his own company called Bruhall International Corporation, representing several manufacturers of component parts.

He also took up an invitation to partner with Italian Daniele Casiraghi whose father was one of the pioneers of the AC industry in Italy and wanted him to work alongside Daniele in a company producing hosing and fittings for that industry. The Casiraghi name became well known when Daniele’s brother Stefano famously married Princess Caroline of Monaco.

In 1984 Giordano moved to Florida and entered the real estate market, buying and selling properties. He also operated a gas station. But health challenges, including a heart bypass operation and hip replacement surgery, slowed down the Italian dynamo, although he still dabbles in the real estate market.

Describing Stewart as “the father of Jamaica”, Giordano says their long friendship had been a special part of his life. Like brothers from another mother, the two meet on special occasions in each other’s life.

“I could not be more proud of Butch Stewart and Appliance Traders as they celebrate 50 wonderful years. I feel as much a part of the family as I did at the very beginning,” Giordano adds.

Butch Stewart passed on January 4, 2021.

Postscript

Last Thursday, Giordano wrote Adam Stewart, current executive chairman of Sandals Resorts International, to offer him his support and to commend him on how well he has carried on his great father’s legacy.