THE bright green tea
bushes in neat rows seem to go on forever, up and down the slopes of Cameron
Highlands. The pleasant scenery is very much part of the hill resort’s charm, a
must-see attraction for visitors.
The man whose family has
been responsible for the lush greenery and one of the most recognisable and
beloved Malaysian brands around, Boh Tea, is standing among the bushes, lord of
all he surveys.
Tristan Beauchamp
Russell, chairman of Boh Plantations Sdn Bhd, at 73 still cuts a dashing figure
with a full head of silver hair and ruddy complexion in the brilliant morning
sun.
He is plucking tender
young leaves expertly with a satisfied look that says all is well with the
quality of his plants.
His practised ease with
tea comes from a life-time of experience; he says he first visited the family
plantation before he was born – in his mother’s womb. He began working for the
company at 22 and has been doing so ever since.
Russell
is the only son of Kathleen and John Archibald Russell. The senior Russell,
J.A., is the founder of Boh Plantations, which is the oldest and largest tea
producer in South-East Asia.
When the Wall Street
crashed in 1927 and the world spun into a recession, J.A. – who had invested in
rubber, coal, construction, plywood, and brick and tiles in Malaya – decided to
go into tea planting. He obtained a grant for 4,000 acres (1,600ha) of land in
Cameron Highlands for tea cultivation. His partner was A.B. Milne, an
experienced tea planter from Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
“J.A. left a legacy of
excellence when he embarked on one of his most enduring ventures. Armed with a
single steamroller and a group of men and mules, he transformed a tract of land
5,000ft (1,524m) above sea level into the first highland tea plantation in the
country,” so say Boh archives.
His son, Tristan, was
born in Malaya in 1932 and J.A. died a year later at the age of 50. “So I never
knew my father,” says Russell.
But he was clearly aware
of his father’s legacy. After studying agriculture in Britain, Russell returned
to Malaya in 1954 and worked as a junior assistant to the then Boh estate
manager, Bill Fairlie, for a salary of 500 dollars.
After J.A.'s death, the
company was run by others, including his stepfather, William Gemmill, who was
chairman. When the latter died in 1969, Russell became chairman of J.A. Russell
& Co which owns Boh Plantations. Under his leadership, Boh grew into a
vertically-integrated marketer of its own brands of tea.
He also introduced
innovations and technology to Boh, improving the production and processing of
tea. It is now able to produce an estimated 4 million kilos of tea annually,
which translates to about 5.5 million cups of tea per day. That’s 70% of all
tea produced in Malaysia and meets about 50% of local consumption demand.
Russell explains the
secret of Boh’s success. “It is the way we have managed to adapt to changing
circumstances,” he says.
The
estate, he explains, was originally established with the idea of exporting tea
to be sold in the London market. But before World War II, somebody had the
foresight to start packaging tea for the domestic market. There were two
brands: Tiger Tea and Boh Tea.
“When I joined the
company, the proportion of our tea being sold in the local market was quite
small. Tiger Tea, which was a cheap brand, was more important than Boh,” he
recalls.
“When the Emergency ended
(in 1960), I remember the dismay coming especially from the Ipoh office of
Harpers (the trading company that distributes Boh Tea). A large number of
British troops who were stationed in Ipoh would be withdrawn and Harpers
thought that it was the end of Boh – the main buyers, it was believed, were
Europeans, whereas the local population bought Tiger tea. But it did not turn
out that way.”
(Tiger tea, by the way,
is still sold in Malaysia in select market centres.)
Boh, Russell relates,
realised that the future lay in going downstream into the packet market.
“The development of the packet trade came to a point where we really did not
need to export at all. That was one of the great reasons for the success of the
company,” he explains.
(Packet tea is loose tea
leaves sold in packets of 50g, 100g, 250g and 500g and constitutes about 45% of
Boh's business.)
The company also “put a
great deal in marketing,” continues Russell.
Indeed, in keeping up
with the times, Boh today has a variety of teas, including an exotic range
called Seri Songket Flavoured Teas; the latest addition is called the Health
Range.
“I used to go all over
the country, visiting Harper’s branches and visiting dealers. I think I must
have visited almost every small town and village in the country,” muses
Russell.
He also attributes Boh’s
success to the company’s handling of its labourers.
“From the earliest time
(in Boh’s history), we found it difficult to get workers. I remember Bill
(Fairlie) listening every night to the radio to find out the rubber price,” he
recalls. “If the price went up, he knew our workers would be leaving to go work
tapping rubber trees.
“So our policy was to
make us more labour efficient and pay our workers a competitive rate. We also
greatly reduced the number of people needed by using machines.”
What would perhaps be
surprising to many people is that such an iconic Malaysian brand with the Asian
sounding name (J.A. came up with the name “Boh” but his inspiration remains a
mystery) is actually still owned by Mat Sallehs. How did the Russell
family manage that, especially after independence?
Russell is frank enough
to say that, like many Britons then, he did not think that Malaya’s
independence from Britain in 1957 was a good idea.
“My stepfather was very
pessimistic about it. My uncle, who had lost a business in China entirely to
the communists, was not optimistic either. He was all for selling out
everything,” reveals Russell.
Despite his own
misgivings, Russell says that he was more hopeful. “I suppose when one is
young, one is optimistic,” he explains with a laugh.
In the end, the Russell
family did not sell Boh Plantations. “We did have faith in the country and I’m
very pleased (that we have been proven right),” he says.
Russell adds that the
Malaysian Government has been very fair to investors.
“They said they would
like foreign investors to take in local partners and we have done that – PNB
(Permodalan National Bhd) has a 26% stake in Boh,” he says.
J.A. Russell & Co Sdn
Bhd has a 70% stake and the remaining 4% is held by existing and ex-employees.
“There was never undue
pressure on us to get out or to give up majority control. There was a period
when they were talking about Malayanisation and limiting foreign-held stakes to
only 30% . But that was a global target and never for individual companies.
“And it did not take the
Government long to realise that people wouldn’t invest money in new enterprises
in Malaysia if they did not have a controlling stake.”
Russell can rest assured
that he has done his father proud by helping build the company to what it is
today but what of his own aspirations for the next generation?
“Well, I hope I leave a
family that carries on the way I have. They have all been involved in the
family business for a long time. (Of his two children, Caroline, as the CEO of
the company and a Malaysian citizen, is actively involved while John,
who was instrumental in setting up the company’s tea plantation in Australia,
is now a software designer living in the United States.)
“I see Boh as providing a
way of life as well as a livelihood. But I think with all of us, it is much of
an affair of the heart than one of making money.
“Money is good for making
something work and it is very convenient to have enough of it. But I don’t
think anybody in the family is hugely ambitious in terms of making money,” he
says thoughtfully.
As non-executive
chairman, Russell’s role is that of an advisor. “I am by no means fully
retired. Because I like it. Because this has been my life. I enjoy it very much
and I feel that I can still contribute.
“Circumstances are
changing all the time. We have met the challenges that came along and certainly
there will be more in the future. The economy of the country is changing,
people’s tastes are changing. Tea does not have the dominant position it used
to have.
“I
am trying to pass over as much to the younger generation as possible. And I’m
not boasting if I say I think I know more about tea than anybody else in
Malaysia.”