Founded in January 1980 by two young attorneys, Kingsley Cooper and Hilary Phillips, what first started out as an events and talent promotions company later morphed into an international modelling agency which has, over a four-decade lifespan, strengthened in becoming a fully diversified entity with an impactful global reach.

This week’s Corporate Profile shares the story of Pulse, a lifestyle and real estate company traded on the local exchange as Pulse Investments Limited.

After a number of innovations and an aggressive diversification of its business model over the last two decades, Pulse, which emerged as a dominant modelling and entertainment company, has overtime moved to incorporate new line items within its evolving portfolio.

“The current business lines represent a unique mix of real estate and creative businesses, thereby establishing an overarching, synergistic product represented by our mantra — ‘Leisure Lifestyle Living’,” said Cooper who now functions as chairman of the company.

The business lines, he said, spans a wide range of segments including property development, sales, rentals, hospitality, concert and fashion, event production, media (online and TV shows broadcast in the Caribbean, North America and Africa), international model agency, Caribbean model searches along with a number of related and developing products having global reach.

During the early years, Pulse as an events company promoted and produced local and international concerts bringing celebrity acts such as The Commodores, Run DMC and Chaka Khan to the island. However, after opening the model agency in 1982, the company in defining and pioneering an international modelling industry for the Caribbean also became very active in discovering a number of top models throughout the years such as Jaunel McKenzie, Nadine Willis, Lois Samuels, Jeneil Williams, Alicia Burke, Francine James, and Oraine Barrett among many others. Consequently, a little over four decades later, more than 100 international Pulse models have done thousands of assignments for some of the world’s greatest brands and appearing on covers of major international magazines.

They later added real estate portfolio which is shaping up to become the largest, now comprising a growing list of developments including the Pulse Centre at Trafalgar which features a 60-unit mix of shops, offices and beauty services outlets as well as the 26-unit Pulse Rooms. Situated at the Villa Ronai property in Stony Hill, St Andrew is also a 75-unit eco-friendly mix of guest suites, residential units, restaurants, function areas, spa, wedding and fitness centres along with the 30 Pulse Homes, consisting of two and three bedroom units, for which construction is expected to completed in 2024.

Flavoured and supported by the creative enterprises it developed over the past 42 years and anchored by its properties in New Kingston and Stony Hill, Pulse is said to be better positioned to become an international lifestyle and leisure brand. Witnessing some 10 consecutive years of growth in the last decade, the company moved from $339 million in revenues and $128 million in profit during June 2013 to $2.2 billion in revenues and $1.79 billion in profits up to June 2022.

Starting out as an idea that Caribbean talent could compete effectively with the best in the world and with $2,000 in capital, a proud Cooper said that Pulse, which began operations in his tiny law office at the start of the 80s, has over many years grew to become a public company and a Caribbean fashion and entertainment industry icon.

Pulse’s market capitalisation now trends in excess of $25 billion. This, after first emerging as the only entertainment/creative type company in the region to list on a stock market.

“Our early days were both exciting and challenging,” said Cooper in recounting what he described to be a bittersweet start-up for the business, one also met with mixed reactions.

“On the one hand, people were impressed with this novel, ground breaking business, especially after we started having successes with stars such as Kimberley Mais, Sandra Foster and Angela Neil, plus our many concerts and fashion shows. On the other hand, few thought we could succeed as a business, given the vagaries and unquantifiable nature of our business model,” he stated, while highlighting the difficulty of securing financing atop the most pressing challenges.

Citing the company’s survival of the high interest rate regime of the 1990s which severely affected its business, to gaining widespread support following the launch of an initial public offering (IPO) in 1994 and growing its business beyond events and modelling, Cooper said the challenges were daring but the rewards to date have been even more rewarding.

Now enjoying widespread acceptance and a fully captivated international audience, the company, through its many business ventures, can now boast about its successes, some of the most noteworthy Cooper said were the appeal of its models globally, the staging of live events such as Caribbean Fashion Week (CFW) and Caribbean Fashion Collections hosted in several of the world’s major cities, the establishment of the Peter Tosh Museum and more recently, the completion of one set of development and the start of another at the beautiful nine acres Villa Ronai property, which the company acquired from Cooper for $600 million last year following a 50-year lease agreement.

Satisfied also about the return on investment especially for shareholders, who he credited for their many years of support, Cooper expressed gratitude for being alive to witness their investments grow above 6,080 per cent in the last ten years alone.

“They believed in us and supported us when so few did, so it is heartening to see them rewarded,” he said.

Backed by a solid team of directors including daughter Safia Cooper and partner Romae Gordon, the chairman said he is very optimistic about the future of the company which continues to work hard in achieving its objectives.

“As our audited financials show [for the year ended June 30, 2022], we continue to grow year over year with assets of $9.3 billion against liabilities of $1.8 billion. Not bad for a company that started life as a tiny events production and model agency business with $2,000 in capital,” he stated.

Cooper said that while the novel coronavirus pandemic had initially slowed some business lines and halted others, business has since recovered and is now back in full gear with all segments fired up and ready to deliver.

“The Pulse Homes project is very exciting and we expect strong gains in hospitality, media and model management, then later, a return to the Pulse Global project,” he said of the outlook.

The Pulse Global project launched in 2019 was designed with a view to leverage partnerships in Africa, North America, Europe and the wider Caribbean by pushing the best of African and Caribbean products for global market consumption. The partnerships encompass products across media, fashion, beauty brands, show productions and other related events. Slowed since the pandemic, the initiative is again being readied for full roll-out at the appropriate time.

“We will be pushing aggressively on all fronts,” Cooper said.