1946-1996 The Building Blocks of Business
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from June 1996.
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He also approached hotel owners with cisterns with suggestions on maintaining an adequate water supply. The advice was always the same: "Save the catchments in certain cisterns, and use other cisterns for cleaning purposes. I can supply the water for cleaning, and you will always have your own good drinking water from the rainwater catchments."
Mr. John Hatch was one of the owners who heeded Mr. Flowers' advice. Consequently, Beach Club from that time on always had good drinking water.
As time went on and demand increased, Mr. Flowers replaced the truck's 500-gallon tank with a 1,000-gallon tank. Demand grew, We regard having a monopoly in the business as having an obligation and commitment to serving the public. and he continued to increasecapacity. Today, he has four water tankers, each with 4,550 gallon capac-
SN Mr. Flowers also saw the need for bottled drinking water and dispensers. In 1974 he purchased a business of that type, pioneered here by Bill Parkhurst. The two men along with Mr. Phil Lustig spearheaded Cayman Water Co., which desalinates and supplies piped water to Seven Mile Beach and West Bay.
C.L. Flowers & Sons still continues to supply water, and also rents and sells water dispensers to homes and businesses on the island. The trucks, with "Flowers Bottled Water" neatly painted on the sides, are a familiar sight around the island.
As the business grew, so did Grand Cayman. The island's modern development started, and the legislative and infrastructural framework for the finance and tourism industries were being laid by government. The Flowers block factory played an important and central role in the architectural development of the country by providing the very basic building blocks needed for contemporary buildings.
To meet the growing demand in the 1970s, Mr. Flowers went to a semi-automated factory that produced up to 400 blocks per day, replacing the hand-operated plant bought in the mid-50s that produced 90 blocks a day.
The factory grew up around his home, that first concrete block house built in Cayman. Mr. Flowers' wife, Jen, helped with the administrative work while he ran the factory and oversaw the deliveries.
The site of their home, a triangular jut of land caught in the fork of Crewe and North Sound roads, always sat high with towers of grey concrete block. People gave directions by the factory site for years. Banners were hung on the block to advertise football fixtures and dancers. Graffiti was sprayed on the blocks come election time. Everyone knew the Flowers block factory, and most people passed it on their way to and from George Town.
Business thrived, so much so that the Flowers family eventually moved into a home off the site. The original concrete block house was transformed into the company office.
Today, the Flowers businesses are run by the sons: Frank; Clarence Jr., called King; and Richard. Now 77, Mr. Flowers stepped down from the day-to-day management of the factory shortly after the ultramodern $6 million plant that was opened by FROM PAGE A4 then governor of the islands, Mr. Alan Scott, in December 1990. That the factory could receive such a singular honour from the islands' highest government executive underlines the importance of the Flowers factory to Cayman's development.
The spacious new premises with its 4000 sq. ft. elegant administrative building, landscaped gardens, paved court and huge plant stand on 13.5 acre lot, 5.5 acres of which has been developed. This is in sharp contrast to the cramped old landmark premises on Crewe Road.
The country could share in the pride of the block factory "that is second to none in the Caribbean," Executive Council Member Mr. Norman Bodden said delivering the keynote address at the inauguration.
Frank, the general manager of the block factory, says the new plant, made by Columbia Machines Inc., of Washington, USA, together with new and fully computerised administrative offices in the island's Industrial Park made the C.L. Flowers & Sons block factory the show plant for the entire western hemisphere.
"Our bankers and the manufacturers themselves thought the plant, with its capacity to manufacture 20,000 blocks per day, was overkill. But we wanted it to make sure we continue to keep the competition out," he said.
It's amazing that with the boom in building that has taken place in Cayman over the past 30 years that no competitor has successfully challenged or encroached CONTINUED ON PAGE A8
