NEWIM, one of Grenada’s most successful local insurance companies, is rebranding and restructuring. When the process is completed during the first quarter of 2017, the company will take on a new name, new image and will be ready to launch out into the region to increase its market share.

On October 13th, at the internationally renowned Spice Island Beach Resort, in the south of the island, NEWIM launched its group operations and its soon-to-be new named the Antillean Group, in the presence of esteem witnesses from across the local business community, the region and beyond.

Executive Chairman of NEWIM Holdings Limited, Kenny John, told the attentive gathering that the decision to rebrand and restructure the local company is in keeping with the desire to spread the wings of NEWIM into the region.

Among those in the audience were former Grenada Governor General Sir Daniel and Lady Williams, Reinsurer Walter Chaname, Reinsurance Broker Tim Light, and President of the Grenada Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Ruel Edwards.

John said the name Antillean was chosen to reflect the diversity of the ethnic background of the inhabitants of our islands and to highlight the islands’ colourful culture and their uniqueness to the world.

He said the Antillean, as a company, will resonate with Caribbean people who historically are known as the people of the Antilles.

“We’re planning to conduct our business beyond the shores of Grenada, and as such we need to put in place a new structure that will allow us to cope with the growth initiative that we have envisaged for ourselves.  Already, we have a new brand and a new name that everybody in that sub-region, we believe, could identify with,’’ he said.

John says that when the rebranding is completed the two businesses that are today known as NEWIM Life and NEWIM General will become Antillean Life and Antillean General, and both will be operating under the auspices of Antillean Group.

According to John, the Antillean will be a holding and management company. It will be responsible for holding shares and the management of finance and accounting services, information and communication technology, system services, corporate affairs and human resource.

NEWIM was started in Grenada more than two decades ago by the late Chester John and has risen to become the largest motor underwriter on the island. Today, the company continues to perform way above expectations and is aggressively pursuing all possible opportunities to further advance and to build on what it has already achieved over the past twenty years.

NEWIM was built on the basis of hard work, commitment and determination and today it is approaching the future with high expectations. The operators expect that when the rebranding and restructuring is completed, the 18 million dollar investment by the shareholders will generate strong returns that will result in stronger capitalization and subsequently, stronger balance sheet and greater financial security so that all who do business with the company can “live well financially”.

As a financial institution, John says NEWIM and soon-to-be Antillean have and will continue to place great emphasis on their social responsibility. He explained that the Antillean Group understands the business of business, and has a modern corporate structure and a creative intellect which places high emphasis on corporate governance, regulatory compliance, financial competence, community responsibility and, most importantly, customer experience.

Already, the company has begun identifying charities to support under its good corporate citizen initiative. For John, that represents their way of giving back to the community and a note of gratitude to the Grenadian people, who stood with them like a rock during the past 20 plus years.

“Today, I want to announce one of the first acts the Antillean will be involved with in the New Year will be to set up charities,’’ John said. “I have two lovely people sitting here today who represent organizations that will be recipients of the charity.  You see, when I was a wee boy, I remember writing on slates, so when you finish a subject, what do you do?  You rub it off and then you start the next subject.’’

“While we are giving some quotes, there is one that is equally touching.  My father and I occasionally would share good quotes and one of his favourite people was Maya Angelou.  She said, ‘If you learn, teach and if you receive, give’. He noted.

John said, in the developed world, kids play with tablets in classrooms,.  They do it individually and they do it together.  While knowledge is out there, we do not want to disenfranchise our children through exposure or lack of it, he warns.

“So, we will be setting up computer labs in two schools; one in L’Esterre R.C. School, which is the school that my father attended when he was a wee boy.  The other in a place that is dear to me because it is actually the seed of my birth, Bonaire Government, which was before, the Anglican Primary School and then the R.C. School in Victoria, St. Mark’s.  We have two people who are principals of those schools here to share this evening with us”.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you wholeheartedly for sharing this evening with us, it is my hope I hope that we serve you as Antillean for the next two decades as well as we’ve served you for the last two decades”.

See full feature in the November 2016 issue of the Barnacle Newspaper.