PROFILE OF MAURICE
QUESNEL
FROM JUNIOR TO
CHIEF
By James Brady
Trinidad Guardian
February 24, 2000
Page 10
By
the age of 16 Joseph Maurice Quesnel (just call him Maurice)
had sat and passed his Higher School Certificate Examination at the College of
Immaculate Conception (St Mary's). And,
although he had the option of pursuing further studies in the hope of winning
an Island Scholarship, he decided against following that path since, in his
view, it was time to see what the world outside had to offer someone with his
ambition.
So,
riding his luck, and his contacts, he landed job as a junior clerk in the
agency department of George F Huggins & Co, Ltd. His starting salary was $40 per month, a sum that, in 1939, many
would have considered to be somewhat princely.
But
the size of his salary was the least of Maurice Quesnel's concerns at that
time. Apparently he had already
regarded himself as someone who was destined to make his mark as a businessman,
and saw his apprenticeship at Huggins as a welcome opportunity to launch what
he hoped would be a lucrative career.
Thus, he would spend the next two years learning all there was to learn
about the agency business.
Then,
in 1941, the teenaged Quesnel boldly left George F Huggins. He left to take up a position with Cannings
& Co Ltd, which had recently established a new Coca Cola Bottling Plant at
Park Street, in Port of Spain.
As
Quesnel saw it, the Cannings' offer was irresistible for two reasons. Firstly, he was joining Cannings as a
supervisor of its retail sales operations.
And, secondly, and most importantly, this new appointment carried with
it a 50 percent raise in salary. He
would start at $60 per month!
By
1944, Maurice Quesnel had been appointed sales manager of the northern
operations, following a re-organisation that took place when Cannings purchased
a second bottling plant in San Fernando.
Not
long afterwards, he was promoted to the post of Administrative Manager for the
northern plant. And it was in this post
that he developed a unique system of controls which came to the attention of a
visiting representative of the Coca Cola Company of the United States, and
which was adopted by that company for use by its bottlers.
His
next step on the corporate ladder was his appointment to the position of
General Manager of Cannings' rum bond.
It was a chair he would occupy until the bond was sold three years
later, he having played a major role in the negotiations leading up to its
sale.
Still
in his early twenties, and now a junior executive, he formed a partnership with
Cannings to set up an agency/distribution business under the name of Quesnel
& Co, Ltd. And, when Cannings
raised capital on the London, NewYork and Minneapolis exchanges, and the company's
stock began to be traded on the local stock market, he swapped his equity in
Quesnel & Co, Ltd for a substantial shareholding in Cannings & Co, Ltd.
As
a result, he became the director in charge of trading operations for the
company (the manufacturing operations having been, at the time, under separate
management) and later, chief executive of the entire company.
Under
Maurice Quesnel's leadership, Cannings expanded its operations considerably. He
developed Hi Lo Food Stores into the leading supermarket chain in this country
and in Jamaica. For example, when he
took over as chief executive of Cannings, there were two Hi Lo supermarkets in
operation in Trinidad. By contrast,
when he vacated the chief executive's chair, there were 17 Hi Lo stores in Trinidad
and five in Jamaica.
Apart
from supermarkets, Cannings made its presence felt in many other areas of
enterprise.
The
company owned the leading soft drinks, dairy and ice cream plants in the
country, as well as leading agency/distribution and ship chandlery
businesses. It pioneered the development
of the nation's poultry industry, building a large poultry processing plant in
Trinidad. It also acquired a fruit and
vegetable canning and freezing plant; owned a shrimp trawler base (which was
later sold to the government); built one hotel (the Radisson Reef); and
renovated another (Crown Point) in Tobago.
Cannings also invested quite heavily in the insurance industry.
In
line with the policies of the government of the day, Cannings arranged for the
purchase by employees of a large block of its shares that were held by a group
of foreign investors. And Chief
Executive Quesnel could also add the introduction of a profit-sharing scheme
for the employees of Cannings to his list of achievements.
In
1975 Maurice Quesnel led the team that completed negotiations for a merger
between Cannings & Co, Ltd and Neal & Massy Holdings Ltd, resulting in
Neal & Massy becoming the largest conglomerate in the English-speaking
Caribbean. As a consequence, he was
appointed a senior director of Neal & Massy while retaining his substantive
position of Chief Executive of Cannings.
Naturally,
this appointment increased the responsibilities of the energetic Mr.
Quesnel. He would be asked to undertake
a major construction programme to provide suitable premises for Neal &
Massy's subsidiaries, and would serve as chairman/director of several of these
subsidiaries. As to be expected, he
also held directorships in companies outside of the Neal & Massy Group, the
most memorable being Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, on whose board he
served form its inception and throughout its localisation proceedings.
In
1969, Maurice Quesnel was elected President of the Chamber of Industry and
Commerce, and was instrumental, with other captains of industry, in promoting
the virtues of a Federation of Chambers, a venture that ultimately failed for
lack of interest.
Joseph
Maurice Quesnel retired in 1983 and, accompanied by his wife, Mona, migrated to
Ocala in Florida. He had formulated
several plans that he intended to bring to fruition during his future years of
well-earned leisure.
Apart
from his commitments to wife and family, these plans included writing a book
(which, incidentally, is still very much at the outline stage) and devoting
more time to his main hobby, breeding and racing thoroughbred horses. But, in 1985, he abandoned both projects to
return home to undertake the reorganization of Neal & Massy's supermarket
operations, which he completed in six months.
Since
the completion of that exercise, he has been involved in numerous other
activities, which seem to suggest that full retirement has been postponed
indefinitely. He still continues to
hold directorships in various companies and, in 1991, he was able to find the
time to serve as Chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Racing Authority. In the recent past, he has taken a special
interest in the affairs of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Retired
Persons (TTARP), where he is a member of the Board of Directors.
Quesnel's
moments of relaxation are spent with Mona at their spacious hilltop bungalow
overlooking the couple's Ortinola Farm, off Acono Road, in the lush Maracas
Valley.
In
1997, the Quesnel's celebrated their golden wedding anniversary when their two
sons, five daughters and 14 grandchildren made the trip to Acono for the
occasion. Meanwhile, back on the farm,
there are always the master's thoroughbred horses to look after, while he
ponders on a suitable opening paragraph for his book.