By Francis Quamina Farrier
FOLLOWING the principal BANKS DIH Ltd Annual Shareholders Meeting at Thirst Park in Georgetown on Saturday, January 25, Company Chairman Clifford Reis and directors, travelled to Airy Hall on the Essequibo Coast last Sunday for the first of four Annual Shareholders Branch Meetings. On Wednesday, January 29, the chairman and directors then travelled to Bartica, some 55 miles farther south, up the Essequibo River from Airy Hall, for the second annual BANKS DIH Shareholders Branch meeting of 2020.
Having covered these BANKS DIH branch meetings for many years, I have come to realise that these branch meetings are special. They seem a lot like annual family reunions when shareholders get the opportunity to interact with each other and hear directly from the company chairman about the company’s performance during the previous financial year. They are also given the opportunity to pose questions directly to the chairman and later interact with him and other directors one-on-one. Shareholders also receive gifts: an umbrella, a torchlight, a bag and such like. In the family atmosphere, some years ago, one of the shareholders recommended that the gift for the following year should be a Rolex wristwatch which brought some amusement to the gathering. Sometimes the chairman relates that incident when injecting some lighter moments into the meetings. BANKS DIH is regarded as a most generous Guyanese company which makes donations to worthy causes in the disciplines of sports, and others including education. One of the traditions at the company’s Annual Shareholders Meetings is to give cheques representing substantial sums to two schools which have applied, to finance a specific project which was previously identified.
In his report this year, Chairman Reis had good news for the shareholders who hail from the Essequibo Coast and Islands, and also Bartica, last Sunday and Wednesday. Their company had once again increased its after-tax profits due to increased sales of its products, resulting in the shareholders receiving larger dividends for their wise investment. Before leaving Airy Hall last Sunday, I spoke with one of the shareholders from that region. “I am very pleased with the report by the chairman,” Walter Elliot of the Henrietta Housing Scheme, told me. He and his wife of 53 years, Desiree, have been BANKS DIH shareholders since 1967 and expressed joy at the strides which their company continues to make.
Arriving at Bartica last Wednesday for the second Shareholders Branch Meeting, the chairman and team were welcomed by shareholders from Bartica and neighbouring communities in that riverine community of the Essequibo, Mazaruni and Cuyuni rivers. It was another year for them to gather, listen to the Chairman’s Report, ask questions and later interact with each other.
Once again I took the opportunity to solicit the thoughts of one of the oldest shareholders of that region. Takur Persaud of Takur Persaud and Sons General Store, Fourth Avenue, Bartica, has been operating his business for 40 years and has been a shareholder and dealer of BANKS DIH products for almost 25 years. Like other Essequibo shareholders, 80-year-old Takur Persaud expressed pleasure that his investment in the company will continue to pay even larger dividends to his children and grandchildren in the coming years.
One of the desires of Chairman Reis pertains to the expansion of the company and its subsidiary, The Citizens Bank at Bartica, is to have a plot of land on which to construct a larger and more attractive building than is the present Citizens Bank on First Avenue. Over the past two Annual Shareholders Meetings at Bartica, Chairman Reis openly asked for a good location on which to construct a new and larger Citizens Bank. This year he happily announced that a suitable plot of land was acquired and that construction of the new Citizens Bank, Bartica Branch would commence shortly.
The third Shareholders Branch Meeting for 2020 was held at Linden last Friday, while the fourth and final for 2020 is scheduled for today at New Amsterdam. I will report on those in next week’s Pepperpot Magazine
