From Postman to Property Owner: Glen Christian Bought the Building Where He Once Delivered Mail

• Cari-Med founder Glen Christian was inducted into the PSOJ Hall of Fame in October 2014
• In 2005 he bought the former Colgate Palmolive property at 216 Marcus Garvey Drive, where he had once delivered mail
• He bought the former Claro building on Knutsford Boulevard, and it was rented out the same afternoon
• His mother taught him that “God has placed us here as stewards”

In November 2014 the Jamaica Observer profiled Glen Christian, founder of Cari-Med Limited, after his induction into the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica’s Hall of Fame on October 29 that year. It is a business story, but faith and property run all the way through it.

Christian grew up in Brandon Hill, Clarendon, one of 13 children, and walked barefoot to school. His mother, Evelyn, traded farm produce at Coronation Market and taught him the basics of buying and selling. As a young man he worked as a postman out of the Hagley Park Post Office while attending Buxton High School in the evenings, then trained as a teacher at Mico College before joining the pharmaceutical division of HD Hopwood in 1971.

His move into ownership began in 1979, when he acquired Portmore Pharmacy. In 1986 he set up Cari-Med in a 3,500-square-foot building at 20 Lady Musgrave Road, starting operations the next year with three employees. The company later grew to about 600 staff. In 2005 he acquired the assets of Colgate Palmolive and, as the Observer put it, walked through the gates of 216 Marcus Garvey Drive “not as a postman but as owner”, the same address where he had once delivered letters. He later bought the former Claro building at 30-36 Knutsford Boulevard in New Kingston, which was rented the same afternoon he signed the purchase agreement. By 2014 his businesses operated nearly 400,000 square feet of office and warehouse space.

The profile credits much of this to the values his mother passed on, including the belief that “God has placed us here as stewards”. At the Hall of Fame induction he was described as “a servant of God”. He chaired the fund-raising committee for the Healing Ministry of Bethel Baptist Church and sat on boards including UTech and Mico University.

For Jamaicans building wealth at home or planning a return from abroad, Christian’s path shows a pattern that still works: start small, buy the premises when you can, and treat commercial property as a long-term asset rather than a quick profit. For churches and Christian business owners, his idea of stewardship offers a way of seeing property: not only as something to own, but as something to manage well and put to use for others.

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