Butch comments that he was keen to teach his children about the hotel business as early he could. ‘Children have an amazing aptitude to thrive in nearly any environment,’ he says.

‘I dragged the poor kids with me on my business trips and visits to the hotels. I wanted to get them involved as early as possible and as a result they all know the business inside out.’His other children, too, now play leading roles in the company. In addition to Adam being the CEO, his sister Jaime heads up the Royal Plantation Collection, and his brother Bobby is in charge of IT. So how does Adam feel about working alongside his siblings? ‘Obviously like most siblings we have our disagreements, but generally we get along great,’ he says.

‘They totally respect the position I’ve been asked to fill. We all have our areas of expertise and rely on each other for our different skill sets – we do a lot of bouncing ideas off each other. Bobby’s IT knowledge is superb and he has done wonders for the technology used within the resorts, and Jaime is fantastic when it comes to planning and research. Under her direction our Royal Plantation brand has flourished.’ ‘I have been blessed, all my children are hugely talented in their own right,’ Butch enthuses. And as for working with him: ‘Many people don’t like working with members of their family,’ says Adam, ‘but I really enjoy working with my dad; we get on really well and truly love one another. He is very demanding, but he is also very compassionate and giving, and is constantly helping people by giving them the tools and the opportunities that they need to succeed.’

Hotels weren’t integral to Butch Stewart’s own background. Until he bought that fi rst property almost three decades ago, and reopened it as the first all-inclusive Sandals resort, he’d been running an air-conditioning appliance company; he had no experience in the hospitality industry. But he was able to successfully transfer his customerorientated approach to this very different world. ‘We were number one in the industry based on the service that we provided,’ Butch recalls. ‘Our simple philosophy was: “The winning formula is to fi nd out what people want, give it to them and in doing so, exceed their expectations.”’ He continued to apply this principal when setting up his first hotel. ‘Our first priority was to fi nd out how these things worked and do the same things as before – provide a professional service and pride ourselves in our service levels making sure customers were happy and satisfied.