Business View Caribbean Dec. 2018 / Jan. 2019

54 55 showroom and service center for JQ Motors Ltd. The compound also is home to the head offices of several other companies, as well as St. Lucia’s first Big Box shopping center, Massy Mega, which is part of the Massy food retail strategy. While other small parcels at Choc Estate are expected to be available soon for more office and commercial enterprises, Gordon has much more ambitious plans for the remainder of the land– the construction of an entire new commu- nity. “We came up with the design in 2007 and presented it to the government, right before the economic crash,” he reports. “In 2008, we all know what happened, so we backed off development because we still think that the economy in St. Lucia does not yet justify the kind of internation- al development that would be required for the property. As you can imagine, that’s a big project for a small island, so we would require a partner who has the kind of capacity and sees the visions we do, and that’s what we’ve been looking for.” According to Gordon, a new area of focus for JQ Charles is insurance. “We are representative of one of the largest insuring houses in the Carib- bean, which is Guardian Insurance out of Trini- dad,” he states. “We have a minority stake in the local agency.We’re not the strongest player in the market; that company is small in comparison to some of our competitors, but what keeps us well-poised for the future is that Guardian is one of the entities that is very strong in life insurance, and this product is expected to be introduced to our local market in 2019. There are only two or three strong players in life, and I think that is the potential stronghold that is going to drive that business, and will be the catalyst that will keep us abreast of the competition.” “We focused over the last four years on strengthening the operating companies so that they are now all running healthily and profitably.” THE JQ CHARLES GROUP OF COMPANIES Gordon remarks, in conclu- sion. “That being done, we can then turn our focus towards new development. The oppor- tunity that we have - a total expansion of Castries to the north - I would see that as the legacy the family would like to leave; the whole Choc Valley can be an entirely new town. So, I would suggest that in the next five to ten years, our focus will be channeled more towards real estate devel- opment and also identifying the kind of partners that are required to achieve this.” PREFERRED VENDORS n FUSO www.fusocaribbean.com Our company was originally a dealership for British Leyland during the 60s and 70s. This was a period in which the St. Lucian vehicle market was dominated by Brit- ish and American brands. However, the management at the time recognized the op- portunity of the emerging Japanese brands that were entering the region and chose the Mitsubishi brand as their single focus. That brand brought with it the requisite cars, pickups and buses that our company needed to be competitive in the market at the time, but the former British Leyland brand had provided us a significant market share of the medium to heavy commercial market of trucks, dumpers and heavy duty buses.In the early 90s, the Mitsubishi brand, including the fuso models, achieved a record 60% market share in the territory of St. Lucia; a feat for which the executive management of JQ Charles Ltd. were formally recognised by MMC. We currently carry FE83, FE85, FE71, FA, Rosa Bus, FE71 Dump and FE83 Dump models. The Fuso brand, continues to be the quintessential element of the total offering of JQ Motors Ltd. in the St. Lucia market and we foresee our continued integration and success. n Massy Stores (SLU) Ltd. www.massystoresslu.com  n 1 st National Bank St. Lucia Limited www.1stnationalbankonline.com