The house Helen built

IF YOU KNOW the Bhagwansingh name, chances are it is because of Helen Bhagwansingh.

Ms Bhagwansingh, who has died at the age of 83, was indubitably a force; the company she led, Bhagwansingh’s Hardware, is a rare example of a home-grown business chain that has become a household name and a fixture on the local commercial landscape. So much so that the Chamber of Industry and Commerce once described her as “a visionary,” “a spectacular decision-maker” and, in 2000, the “Woman of the Millennium.”

It is a name that was built block by block. But it is a name that was not, at first, hers.

Helen was born on October 7, 1940, to Daniel and Vilna Ramoutarsingh at a time when women were not expected to go into business. That did not stop her father from taking her out of school at age 11 and putting her to run the bicycle repair department of his hardware business in San Fernando.

By 1969, she had married Hubert Bhagwansingh and gone into commercial ventures of her own, including a stint as the owner of a popular drive-in cinema at Valsayn. But that year, her fate called to her in the form of a request, yet again, from her father.

An employee was sick. Someone had to fill in at a branch of the business located at Sea Lots. It was a small branch. In fact, it was an iron shed surrounded by mangrove. Not far away, the country’s largest dump sprawled in the distance.

By the time Helen Bhagwansingh was done with it, an empire had started, an empire which today employs roughly 1,200 people and includes outlets in Chaguanas, Marabella and Trincity.

To the iron shed, from which building blocks were initially sold, was added cement, steel and lumber. By the 1990s, Bhagwansingh’s acquired Dansteel and Centrin. Later, shares were acquired in an aluminium extrusion manufacturer and in a construction company specialising in low and middle-income houses. The boldness of all these moves cannot be overstated.

Ms Bhagwansingh’s legacy is not just one of trailblazing female leadership. It is the embodiment of the capacity of local entrepreneurship to make higher and higher strides. It is also an example of a long-standing and successful family business when such businesses often face unique pitfalls.

The consistent commitment of “Mrs B,” as Ms Bhagwansingh was often called, was also a commitment to family and to country, as exemplified in her focus on a range of humanitarian causes. Among her initiatives was the starting of a trust for diabetes education, research and prevention. She gave back, funding public displays to raise spirits.

This Christmas, when you look for the stars that are normally lit over the hills of Laventille and San Fernando, think of her shining brightly.