Younis had an undying belief in a better Jamaica

In his more than 50 years as a businessman in Jamaica’s capital city, Sameer Younis came to represent humanitarianism and civic-mindedness and is best remembered for his relentless drive to revitalise downtown Kingston in order to make it not just the hub of commercial activity in the country, but also a place of beauty and a source of pride.

The one-time Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) president, who also headed the Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association for a period, had an early introduction to the world of trade and commerce in the place that he would later devote his time and energy into restoring. At the age of 13, he began working at his father’s business place on Harbour Street during holidays from his alma mater, Wolmer’s Boys’ School.

Younis’ father and mother, Abdulla and Linda, were Lebanese nationals who had set up a wholesale store in the city, where Younis was born on May 14, 1942.

After leaving the University of Michigan, where he had spent a year, 18-year-old Younis began working as a haberdashery salesman, a job that took him all over the country.

Started own business

In 1970, he secured a loan in order to start his own business – a clothing store he named Fabrics de Younis.

Having been married in 1965 to a woman who had come from Lebanon to be with her new husband, Younis continued doing sales while his wife, Leila, worked at the store, which was located in the newly opened Spanish Court Shopping Centre in New Kingston.

The store was the first of what would become a chain of outlets, at one time numbering 30. When it became difficult for Younis to manage the many stores that he had opened in partnership with other businessmen, he scaled down operations to nine stores in 1980. A decade and a half later, in the late 1990s, plummeting sales at Younis’ fabric stores forced him to adapt, and he turned them into retail outlets for ready-made clothing, under the name of Samm’s.

Fuelled by a passion for the redevelopment of the country’s main business district, Younis, the JCC president from 1986 to 2001, was behind a series of major programmes to rejuvenate the city and encourage civic pride among its residents. Included in these ventures were the ‘Clean as a Whistle’ campaign, which had an anti-litter and clean-up focus, and the ‘Helping Hands’ campaign, which removed mentally ill persons from the streets of Kingston and relocated them at the Bellevue Hospital. Younis was also instrumental in creating the ‘People Against Road Accidents’ campaign that was launched in 1989.

As chairman of the JCC’s Junior Achievement Programme during his term of presidency, Younis used the project to target inner-city youth by way of social outreach and training initiatives. He was particularly driven by the desire for them to be instilled with positive values, and often expressed concern that many young people were floundering and unable to find their way in life, owing to the absence of a sound family structure. He frequently called for a sustained effort to be made into restoring Jamaica’s family structures, and for young people to be taught responsibility and accountability.

For several years, Younis also chaired the Chamber’s Civic Affairs Committee, whose annual charity ball raised millions of dollars for the Youth Leadership Training Programme, a project of the Inner City Development Programme, another focus of the chamber’s. While Younis did not seek re-election as JCC president when his third consecutive term ended in 2001, on the grounds that his business had suffered during the interim, the programmes that he initiated, which were considered timely and relevant, were to become known for their longevity.

Trapped in Lebanon

In July 2006, Younis received the scare of his life when his wife and mother of his five children, Leila, found herself trapped in war-ravaged Lebanon, along with their grandson, Georgio, after visiting family members. Mrs Younis had reportedly been staying at a location just a few miles away from the centre of conflict in Beirut, where bombings were taking place on a daily basis.

Much to the relief of Younis, who had just left Lebanon two weeks earlier, his wife and their grandson, along with two Lebanese nationals who lived in Jamaica, were eventually able to secure passage to neighbouring Syria and then into Jordan. From that Middle Eastern nation, they subsequently boarded a British Airways flight to London, and travelled home to Jamaica shortly afterwards.

Younis, who received the Order of Jamaica, and earlier, the Order of Distinction, Commander Class, for his contribution to community development and the retail industry, felt that business people were bound by a code of ethics that included honesty, integrity and trustworthiness. He also emphasised the importance of customer satisfaction, on which, he said, great businesses were built.

editorial@gleanerjm.com