Kevin Hendrickson doesn’t talk much, but his business career had a lot to say:
KEVIN HENDRICKSON is motivated by pride in his successes as an entrepreneur who owns and operates several businesses, but he makes a big distinction between pride and being boastful.
In fact, no one is inclined to apply the latter description to the hotelier and businessman who has never been known to seek out the spotlight, and like his three siblings and father, routinely avoids publicity. In an interview with the Financial
Gleaner, Hendrickson willingly discussed his holdings, but downplayed his family’s substantial wealth, and politely sidestepped responses to questions about the price tag of some of the hotel and baking business acquisitions he has made.
Born into business, the baking business in fact, Hendrickson now has his hands full with a massive multibillion-dollar redevelopment and integration of three of his hotel holdings on Knutsford Boulevard, the focal point of the New Kingston business district.
Still, baking runs in his blood, so to speak. The owner of the former Wyndham Hotel, now referred to as 77 Knutsford, the Courtleigh, Jamaica Pegasus and Knutsford Court in Kingston, as well as the Holiday Inn Sunspree resort in Montego Bay – which are all now undergoing varying levels of refurbishing – is expanding his baking business at the same time, having recently bought out a small bakery operation in Old Harbour.
Dr Lushus now joins the Kingston-based Yummy and Manchester-based Holsum bakeries owned by Hendrickson, whose baked-food brands competes with National Baking Company, the family’s flagship business run by his brother Gary ‘Butch’ Hendrickson.
Hendrickson says the baked goods market is large enough for his bakeries, National and several others that operate all over Jamaica.
He did not disclose the price he paid late last year for the small bakery outfit known for its speciality pastries, but admitted that Dr Lushus provided stiff competition in the segment of the market served by Yummy and Holsum. He is now hunting for property to house his new acquisition, which operates from rented premises in the bustling St Catherine town.
The businessman conveyed that no other expansion plans are imminent for the baking business, as he is now focused on consolidating his hospitality holdings.
Three years ago, he paid US$17.6 million for the 303-room former Wyndham property and is undertaking a rescoping and redevelopment of the property that is running well beyond the US$100million budget initially contemplated. He bought The Jamaica Pegasus in 2010 from state-owned Urban Development Corporation for US$11 million and did extensive refurbishing there. Nearly a decade before that, in 2001, Hendrickson purchased the former Sutton Place hotel from Dermott Blake and opened it a year later as The Knutsford Court Hotel. He also owns and operates The Courtleigh Corporate Centre in New Kingston.
The synergies involving the Hendricksons’ Yummy, Holsum, National and Dr Lushus brands, with National doing some distribution for the other brands, are also reflected on the hotel side of the family business.
Family group
Although Kevin and his siblings each operate distinct businesses, they are all part of the Hendrickson Group pioneered by patriarch Karl Hendrickson. The family business also includes Coconut Bay Resort & Spa in St Lucia, owned and operated by ‘Burch’ Hendrickson. Cathy Hendrickson Kerr and her husband Ian Kerr operate Sunset Beach Resort & Spa in Montego Bay and Sunset at the Palms in Negril. The Ocho Rios-based Jamaica Grande, which formerly operated under the Sunset brand, was sold by the Hendricksons three years ago to Mexican hotel chain Moon Palace at a price estimated to be close to US$100 million.
Other businesses in the group include Caribbean Broilers, Newport Mills and their subsidiaries, owned and operated by Lori-Ann Hendrickson Lyn and her husband Dave Lyn.
Kevin Hendrickson says the siblings and their father still brainstorm business ideas together and assist each other with matters pertaining to the bakeries or hotels. Meanwhile, as he concentrates on his large hotel properties, he has put up the Ruins at the Falls in Ocho Rios for sale – he acquired that property in 2001 – and is mulling selling the riverside Blue Mountain Inn property located in the hills of St Andrew.
As to what drove his success over the years, he pegged much of it to the staff he has worked with over time.
“Work hard and always look after your customers and team members,” he said. “Everybody is motivated by something. Pride is always a driving force in anything you’re doing.”
Still, it has not all been smooth sailing. As most entrepreneurs do, Hendrickson has experienced failure. Made-On Limited manufactured high-end, intricately handcrafted, fine furnishings marketed under the Courtleigh Furniture Company label almost exclusively for export to the United States, with some pieces also utilised at the Courtleigh Hotel.
The business was shuttered after Hurricane Dean destroyed the factory at Riverton City in Kingston a decade ago. Hendrickson recalled that there were other issues with the business, which, in the final analysis, was no longer a good fit for the emerging business model.
Hendrickson’s beginnings
Hendrickson started out in business fresh out of university with a business administration degree. He proved his mettle as general manager for Courtleigh Manor hotel on Trafalgar Road, bought as an investment property in 1981 by National Continental Corporation under