Thank You Serjad Makmadeen (taken from Newsday article) What a story. You have to admire entrepreneurs especially when they start from below zero.
Born in Princes Town in 1910, Serjad Makmadeen was the last of the eight children of an immigrant from the Punjab, India. When he was still quite young the family moved to St James and he attended primary school up to the age of ten. Economic circumstances forced him to leave school and he got employment as a gardener until he was 13. Then he got a job as a baker’s apprentice. He was determined to make a better way of life for himself. He saved his small salary and in the ’30s he learnt a small soft drink plant was for sale in St James. He had $350 and borrowed $250 from his friend Nagib Elias and bought the soft drink plant. He got married to Khairoon Khan and they worked together running the plant. Using old beer bottles, they produced Cola Champagne and Banana soft drinks. He would make one or two cases of soft drinks per day and take them with him on his rounds the next day.
Serjad began to understand the difficulty of an East Indian breaking into the soft drink business in a colonial society. When he first acquired the plant he wrote several times to various soft drink producers in England enquiring how he could make improvements. He got no replies. It was evident by his name that he was not an Englishman but an East Indian so he changed his name to Joseph Charles which quickly led to communication.
His clientele was now growing and he could not get enough bottles to satisfy the demand. He learned that a soft drink factory in Montreal, Canada was closing down and their assets were up for sale. He realised this would be the source of empty soft drink bottles, which he promptly brought and shipped to Trinidad. The bottles, however, had a brand name Solo and a logo with a pilot drinking a bottle of soft drink. Joseph made the decision to keep the brand which is maintained to this day, along with the distinctive heavy glass bottles.
After the Second World War and with demand for his soft drinks, Joseph bought an additional plant and went into the soft drink business as a full-time occupation. This factory was located at the area under his house in St James and had the capacity to produce eight bottles per minute.
By 1950, he had set up a new plant at the corner of White Street and Tragarete Road opposite the Queen’s Park Oval with equipment imported from the United States. This plant produced 72 bottles of soft drink per minute.
By 1958, Joseph Charles secured a loan for $1.8 million and in January 1960 constructed a new state of the art factory in San Juan on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway. In 1962 he introduced the still widely popular Solo Apple J.
He died in 1965 and is succeeded by his family who now own and operate the company. Thank you Serjad Makmadeen, the original Mr Solo.
