Business View Caribbean, July/August 2018

74 75 Caymans first. While CL Flowers is no longer with us, his spirit lives on as the family busi- ness legacy continues to thrive and diversify. Sharing the Flowers family passion and drive is Dara Flowers – Clarence’s granddaughter and a third generation Director of the com- pany. Mentored by her father, Frank, Dara is up to speed on the ins and outs of all of its corporate divisions: Flowers Properties; Air Agencies; Flowers Bottled Water; Orchid Development; Flowers Air Dispatch Services (FADS); Flowers Aviation Security Services; and Flowers Block & Foam. Dara reflects, “My grandfather, Clarence Flowers came from humble beginnings. He moved to the Caymans from Jamaica at the WHAT: A legacy of family-owned construc- tion businesses WHERE: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands WEBSITE: www.flowersgroup.com AT A GLANCE THE FLOWERS GROUP THE FLOWERS GROUP age of 13 and worked in various kinds of jobs. Later, after serving in World War II, he came back and decided to invest in a truck. That small trucking business evolved into helping with cargo handling at Cayman Airport. At that point, avia- tion was starting to take off and we had sea planes landing in the North Sound. Grandfather would pick up the passen- gers and their baggage and truck goods from the outer districts. That was the beginning of our current business FADS (Flowers Air Dispatch Services).” At the same time, Clarence had fallen in love with “Miss Jen” - Jen Hinds. He wanted to impress her by building the best house he could, but most of the traditional houses were wood, thatch, waddle and daub, and they just wouldn’t stand up in strong winds and hurricanes - not good enough for his bride-to-be. When he discovered the government had a small block plant where they produced material to build the post office – the strongest building on the island–Clar- ence thought that would work well for residential construction. So, he pro- ceeded to build a house for his beloved, one block at a time, using a hand-press machine. His days were spent at the trucking company, and early mornings and late nights building blocks. It took years to finish the home but, in the end, Jen loved it. And people realized it was a good, strong idea. So, he went into pro- duction commercially, and the concrete block side of the business was born.