Business View Caribbean | August 2019

19 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN AUGUST 2019 I SLAND CAR RENTALS JAMA I CA Airport (Kingston) and Donald Sangster Int’l Airport (Montego Bay). Speaking to the unusual beginnings of the firm, Chairman and Managing Director, Michael Campbell, relates, “I started the Island Car Rentals business purely by accident. I was in real estate at the time, and my business partner and I bought a building uptown from a car rental company. We had a deal that they would have the downstairs and we would have the upstairs because we wanted to use their rent to pay the mortgage. One evening, I went downstairs and saw their staff with all long faces – they were losing their jobs at the end of the month because the owner was leaving the island. I thought, but he has a lease; if he leaves, who’s going to pay the mortgage?” As one who lives his life by the mantra: “We’re constantly faced by opportunities, brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems,” Campbell pondered the opportunity in front of him. He owned the building; the staff had 15 years of experience and knew how to run the company; all he needed was a telephone line and some vehicles. He recalls, “I did a plan to see how many vehicles I would need to pay the mortgage; that was all I was interested in. It came out it was 20. So, I went to the bank and they agreed to back us, and the day after they approved it, the government banned importation of cars in Jamaica.” Undaunted, Campbell decided to buy his tenant’s second-hand fleet, but there were only four cars left. Then, he saw an ad from Avis, selling out their second-hand fleet – so he bought the four cars, plus Avis’s 16, and went along quite nicely paying the mortgage. At the time, there were ongoing challenges from the government’s Ministry of Housing towards real estate developers, so Campbell and his partner decided they had built their last house in Jamaica and were now in the rent-a-car business. That was in 1973. Island Car Rentals has incorporated many changes in the years since and growth has been steady. Campbell, who owns 70 percent of the company, acknowledges, “My grandfather and my father taught me that business only goes in