nov-2017c

60 61 financial difficulty and had to sell off its assets around the world.” The Unicomer Group bought the Caribbean portion of the British business,which had locations, at the time, in 11 island countries. Jamaica is now one of 15 countries forming the Unicomer Caribbean unit, including the Dutch Caribbean islands of Curacao, Sint Maarten, and Bonaire.The unit has a Managing Director who works out of Miami, and Harris, as Managing Director for the Jamaica operation, reports to him. Prior to 2006,Unicomer Jamaica was on the Jamaican Stock Exchange, but it is no longer a listed company. It’s now a private company with restrictions on sharing financial information. Harris says no one else in the area can match Unicomer for the breadth and size of its retail operation.“We have some large compa- nies in the Caribbean region; people like the Massy Group have retail operations, but they are a conglomerate with financial services,motor vehicles, and stuff like that, as well.We have a company called Grace Kennedy in Jamaica also,which is a conglomerate with a bank, and so forth. But we are verymuch focused on retail, and there isn’t anybody across the Caribbean that has that same level of reach that we do.” The business has continued to grow and develop.New brands include Courts Optical, Courts Ready Cash, Lucky Dollar,Ashley Furni- ture Home Store, and Radio Shack. In America, Radio Shack has dis- appeared, but when it first went into receivership,Unicomer bought UNICOMER GROUP, JAMAICA The digital revolution will help us. What we see Amazon doing is something we keep at the forefront of our minds. What’s happening elsewhere across the world, and how we change – taking into account the ex- panding use of the internet, and being able to utilize that. DENNIS HARRIS GENERAL MANAGER FOR UNICOMER GROUP, JAMAICA