Business View Caribbean | Feb 2019

ahead of the curve and our competition.” “I do all of our marketing and getting the on- line sales and working through the website is a major focus for me,” says brother David, CTL’s Chief Operating Officer. “One of the things that we have done here at the new store is create a loyalty customer base, and I’m happy to say that even with a small population, we have, right now, over 6,000 loyalty customers, which is really great. I’m proud of that.” Another reason for pride in the company be- comes apparent as Michael recounts the story of the Fish Bay location not only surviving 2017’s Hurricane Irma, which devastated the BVI, but then becoming an important commu- nity asset in its aftermath. “This store survived a 225-mile-an-hour hurricane, sitting right on the water’s edge,” he remembers. “It survived the storm surges, the winds, but, more impor- tantly, the day after the hurricane, we were able to come in, get rid of all the water and get the generators started, and this store functioned as the main store on the island. Everyone grav- itated to it – the army, the electricity corpora- tion, the water department used us, exclusively, to try and get power restored and water run- ning in those early days right after the hurri- cane. CTL became a fixture of the community to help everybody get back up and running and on their feet.” “We had about 15 dedicated employees that stayed with us throughout the entire episode, even forsaking their own homes that got dam- David and Michael Thomas Holding Business of the Year Award 48