Butch Stewart Mogel

Butch Stewart,

Chairman & Founder, Sandals & Beaches Resorts

Chairman of the Board, Air Jamaica

TOURISM MOGUL, Gordon "Butch" Stewart was born in Kingston, Jamaica on July 6, 1941. The name Butch stuck very early. According to the family anecdote, the proud mother was showing off the newborn when in walked an officer of the Winnipeg Grenadiers, a Canadian regiment. "What am I going to call this child?" Jean asked no one in particular. "He is so fat you will have to call him Butch," the officer said.

Gordon "Butch" Stewart has since been called the "king of all-inclusive resorts," the "Cupid of the Caribbean," and the "master of marketing."

His father, Gordon Leslie Cox, came to Jamaica as a baby of six months, and when his parents' marriage went on the rocks, was adopted by a wealthy St Ann couple, Ethel and Cyril Stewart. Intriguingly, Ethel Stewart, who doted on the infant Butch, died, leaving her £1,000,000 fortune to charity. Butch's dad therefore had to fend for himself, trying his hand unsuccessfully at business before finally taking a job to feed his family.

Well before he was 10 years old, Butch learnt how to do what Jamaicans like to refer to as "hustle", using creative ways to make money.

He saved like mad to buy his boat. Later he bought old cars, fixed them and sold them at a profit. But it would be years hence that people would come to realize that all that was mere practice for the empire on the horizon.

The priests at Campion High where he attended boarding school were reported to have made a dire prediction: that Butch and another boy with whom he was close, were the two boys "most unlikely to succeed in life". Money was tight with the Stewarts and they decided they could no longer afford the fees at Campion. Butch was called home and sent to day school at Columbus Heights, outside St Ann's Bay. Butch didn't mind leaving school in Kingston. He got the chance to go to the sea more often and to catch fish. He would sell the fish to the hotels and what was left he would sell to his parents at half-price, which they would buy just to humor him.

When he was about 12 years of age, Butch borrowed his father's motor boat, convinced the filming crew of the James Bond movie "Dr No" that he had enough skill to transport crew members to the reefs and earned money doing so.

He also similarly transported the British actress Joan Collins and could not believe his eyes when she took off her top, exposing her nudity to the bewildered boatman!

At 19 years old, he was a seasoned salesman with Arthur Gray Limited, a commission agency specializing in chemicals and appliances. He loved to be on the road, recalling that "I did not like to stay home in case I missed something." He saved hard from the commission which he earned. That was often more than the salary he received. The money would come in handy, for two very good reasons.

Butch was always popular with the girls. But one day, without warning, into his life stepped one special girl, Erica Sturrock whose parents had come to Jamaica from England, met and loved each other on this beautiful sun-kissed isle. Erica was a mere teenager but she was lovely.

The second important thing was that at this time he began to feel the need to improve his education, if he was going to succeed as a businessman, and he decided to go to school in England. With the money he had saved from commission, he bought a plane ticket for £72. Butch was not there long before his place of residence became the party center. He made many friends and traveled all over Europe.

He returned to Jamaica in 1961 in the middle of Independence upheavals and worked numerous sales positions from insurance sales to alcohol distributor, all the time feeling a sense of dissatisfaction.

When he had contributed enough to the coffers of others, Butch Stewart launched out on his own. After rising to the position of sales manager for the renowned Dutch-owned Curacao Trading Company Stewart left in 1968 and with £5,000 he established Appliance Traders Limited (ATL) with New Jersey based Fedders air-conditioning units as its trump card. Founded as an air-conditioner service and distribution company, ATL soon grew meteorically, adding refrigerators, freezers and other appliances. Within 12 months, and against wicked competition from top firms like Wonards, ICD, Carrier and the like, the Fedders brand had become the number one room air-conditioner in Jamaica. Today, ATL makes or sells everything from water pumps and electrical generators to cars and auto parts.

Stewart drove himself and time meant nothing to him. I was getting up at 5:00 am and going to bed at 1:00 am, and frequently enough, at 8:00 am the next day. He targeted the new villas being built in Runaway Bay, realizing that they needed AC units for each room.

Rubbing shoulders with the jet set Stewart, aged 27, had firmly planted his feet on the first rung of the ladder of success, marking the beginning of a magical journey to wealth and influence in which he would rub shoulders