HISTORY
The Henriques story is deeply etched in the history of Jamaica. It began in the late 1800's with six sons and a daughter of Samuel Cohen Henriques. All the boys born as it was, to be engineers. Thus after the earthquake of 1903, three of his sons; Emmanuel, Owen Karl (OK) and Vernon were all working on the Panama Canal project, while Rudolph (Dossie) was working on the Grand Central Station project in New York. All returned to Jamaica to join their other two brothers Horace and Fabian, having seen the opportunity of helping to rebuild Jamaica.
An Engineering Firm "Kingston Industrial Works" (K.I.W.) was formed and managed on Darling Street by Vernon. A construction company was formed and managed by Rudolph and Emmanuel; "Henriques Construction Company". The Henriques brothers continue to shine prominently in the development of Jamaica, doing work for the sugar industry and through K.I.W. constructed buildings such as the telephone company on Half way Tree Road and many others.
In 1932 they built a match Factory supplying matches to Jamaica until it's closure in 1957. They also built the first Dry Dock in Jamaica on Belmont Road off Winward road, at the request of the British Admiralty Submarine, Chasers and Fairmiles.
The Henriques' purchased farms in Clarendon in 1937, and supplied cane to the Monymusk factory located a few miles from the farms. In 1948 they commissioned their own Sugar factory "New Yarmouth Ltd." which remained in operation until it's closure in 1996.
OK, apart from his financial abilities, worked very closely with the Government and was a member of the legislative board. On the formation of Henriques Brothers he was appointed the first Chairman of the board, consisting of all the Brothers.