June 7, 2009 — June is shaping up as a busy month for Howard Bowring: He was honored Friday as the St. Thomas Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration, and on June 17 he will marry his sweetheart of the past three years, Annette Forney.
Reflecting on all the recent excitement, the soft-spoken Bowring says he was blindsided by the business award, given to him at a University of the Virgin Islands ceremony.
"It was totally unexpected," he said, shaking his head. "Carl Christensen (V.I. SBA branch manager) called two weeks ago and told me I'd been chosen for the award, and asked me to write a bio. I told Annette right away. I was so surprised."
Forney wasn't that surprised.
"I sat down and wrote the bio," she said with a smile over Sunday brunch at Hook, Line and Sinker.
Why does he think he received the honor?
"That's a really tough question," Bowring said. "I know FirstBank recommended me, so based on my relationship with them, I guess it's persistence. I don't give up."
He obviously has been doing something right. From one partner and no employees in 1988, he now has a payroll of 28 employees.
"I thank my employees," he said. "They have been with me through hurricanes — we've stuck together for a long time."
Bowring is a native-born Crucian. His parents, Lee and Phyllis Bowring, ran a charter boat business on St. Croix until moving to St. Thomas in the 1970s.
Living on a boat with his folks, where he was home-schooled through correspondence courses, Bowring says he was exposed to charter boat provisioning early on. It seemed a natural progression for him. He worked for food-distribution companies, including Anchor Foods and Quality Foods, before striking out on his own in 1988 at age 24.
"I had a pickup truck, a line of credit from one supplier and a business partner," Bowring said. "We established Caribbean Basic Supplies, supplying non-perishable foods, disposable dinnerware and cleaning supplies to hotels and restaurants."
The young company's first-year anniversary was greeted by Hurricane Hugo in October 1989. Showing some of the persistence for which he was honored, Bowring and his partner drove around the island to see which customers were open.
"We took orders, and made deliveries in our own cars because the roads were impassable in our delivery truck," he said.
The hard work paid off. In 1991, the company moved to a larger facility in Contant, opened a retail store, established a delivery route on St. John and computerized its inventory system.
Again, the elements tore into St. Thomas with Hurricane Marilyn in 1995, leaving the company with minor damage but no phones.
"We used one cell phone for two months," Bowring said.
In 2004, Bowring took a leap of faith, buying out his partner and establishing Caribbean Foodservice. The gamble paid off: At the end of 2008, sales were up 11 percent from 2006.
In 2007, the company began diversifying into the grocery and cruise-line business. For the first time, Bowring hired sales personnel and now has a sales team in place, headed by his fiance, Forney.
Forney wears many hats at Caribbean Foodservice.
"I'm sales manager today," she said.
With Bowing's approval, she recounts how the two met.
"We met three years ago when I tried to line him up for the Internet service I was representing," Forney said.
Bowring didn't take to the service, but he did take to its representative.
"I kept asking her to lunch," he said. "She finally gave in."
It was that persistence again. After dating for three years, they got engaged earlier this year.
Bowring says he hasn't been hurt by the sagging economy.
"We've seen new opportunities," he said. "One large distribution company is going out of business, and it's harder to order through Puerto Rico now — it's more expensive to ship to St. Thomas."
Next on the busy couple's agenda is the wedding in Michigan, where Bowring's family lives, and a chance to breathe with an 18-day honeymoon in Spain.
Forney, a St. Thomian, and Bowring are an integral part of island life.
"Howard knows the importance of giving back to the community," Forney said.
The company supports several local agencies, including the Salvation Army, Miracle Babies Foundation, V.I. Girl Scouts and the Family Resource Center.
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