There’s no arguing that George Goundar is a self-made millionaire. The local shipping tycoon is never quick to brag about his success.
He prefers to see himself as a hard-worker and a humble man who got catapulted to the top of his game through sheer passion.
And that is quite true if you hear him talk about how he emerged from very humble beginnings on Koro Island in Lomaiviti and Levuka, Ovalau to the pinnacle of the local shipping industry.
Born Subramani Goundar, he is known by many today as George, a name given to him by a family they were close to when he was growing up on Koro. He grew up speaking fluent i’Taukei, saying that his Hindi was quite poor because the language was hardly spoken at home.
George received his education at Levuka Public School. He left in 1979 to join the School of Maritime Studies now known as the The Fiji Maritime Academy (FMA), where he underwent his four-year apprenticeship.
During his time in LPS, he played hockey for three years and was a goalie and fullback. “We were the first team that won both trophies in 1979, “ George recalled. “That year our captain was Trevor Patterson.”
Academic was not his thing. Instead, he was well versed with sports and had a knack for the mechanical field. “I flopped form five and I was supposed to repeat but when I saw my sister in the same class, I walked out of school, and said I was not going back.”
“Then there was a family friend at the F.I.T (now FNU) and he said ‘oh we will put him in school’, but I didn’t qualify and it really took me some time to get in there because I wasn’t the smartest kid on the block.”
In 1985, George married and moved to Canada where his Fiji qualifications were not recognised. So for the first two years, he had to do odd jobs working at department stores and as a nightclub bouncer.
At the same time, he completed his marine engineering course and later joined the Canadian shipping company, British Columbia Ferry Services, in 1987. Getting a promotion was not easy.
George had to start at the bottom and slowly make his way up. He would serve tea and coffee to ‘white officers’. He said it was very difficult for a coloured person like him to work in an environment where he was treated differently.
But those challenges never disheartened the man from Lomaiviti. He always had the support of his family. His wife used to work 12- hour shifts at a hospital and that sacrifice drove him to reach greater heights and attain a ship officer position.
“It took me three years to get a regular job with BC ferries and in 1990 I became a chief engineer.
“I worked with them for 24 years, 17 years as the chief engineer, then I became the training officer for all engineers for the vessel I was on and then I was in quality control and engaged in any maintenance on board.”
As an eight-year-old boy sailing with his farther, George knew in his heart that shipping was his destiny. A large part of his achievement was his upbringing on an island, surrounded by the sea and learning from humble beginnings.
“I really enjoyed living on Koro Island, farming with my parents, planting yagona, yam, dalo and cutting copra. “As a young kid I used to go out to the jungle, catch roosters or chickens and tame them to take them for rooster fighting.
“Every school break there used to be about 14 of us at home. My cousins and I would go to the island and have horse riding, swimming in the ocean, and hunt for pigs and pigeons.”
George learned about the shipping business from his father who started a shipping venture in the early 50s with a small boat that travelled between Koro Island and Levuka.
His parents, Narayan Sami Goundar and Daya Wati also owned a shop in Levuka which was later sold when George and his siblings moved to Suva to pursue further education.
“That time Levuka was the main hub for the copra industry so my dad later bought another vessel, the first was called Angela and the second was Agnes.”
He shared that his main motivator as a young boy was sailing with his father and getting the opportunity to come to Suva and watch movies at the theatre which would cost around five pennies.
“Then my dad, in 1974, bought another vessel which was the Tui Levuka, a slightly bigger vessel. That’s when I fully understood my career and that I had to become a sailor.”
When George left for Canada never did he think that before he reached 50 he would return to Fiji and launch a company that would later dominate the local shipping scene.
“So I came to Koro in 2010 with my two sons, on a shipping vessels.”
“When we got off the boat it was raining and there was no shelter at 2am on Koro Island so I later went to see the owner of the shipping company.”
After voicing his concerns about the situation, the ship owner told him ‘if you don’t like it, get your own vessel.’
So George did just that. He returned to Canada and approached BC Ferries with the aim of purchasing a vessel. It took him six months to convince the shipping company that he was more than capable of owning a ship.
On January 2011, BC Ferries acknowledged and approved George’s leave and the sale of the Queen of Prince Rupert.
“It was on July 6 when I left Canada. It was a 14-day journey to Fiji and it was when we came to Fiji I that I got a taste of the politics in the local shipping industry. It was nasty.”
“Everybody was monopolising their own routes so when I came in, I did the Kadavu, Savusavu and Taveuni on a weekly basis.”
But how did George manage to purchase his first vessel and one that he had previously worked on? While he initially sought financial assistance from this family things did not go as planned. The last resort was to mortgage his house in Canada.
“I worked for BC Ferries and I was earning about $180,000 a year and my wife was also working and for us to get a loan was simple, because they had your employment and tax history.
“We had to use the house to borrow money and at that time it was worth about $3 million, so we mortgaged the house. My wife was scared of the possibility of losing our house but I had faith that I could pull it off.
“I told my wife to not worry about it and within a year we were able to pay it off and I was lucky that time because the mortgage rate was low.
“That’s where I started from, whatever we earned was rolled back in the business for investments and purchasing more vessels.”
“I made it yes, but I didn’t make it alone.”
Nowadays, during his spare time, George enjoys fishing, spending time with his two dogs and being out in nature where life for him began.
He plans to venture into farming on the land he has invested in, particularly planting crops such as cassava and cabbages that could be used on board his vessels, which could potentially reduce his expenses.
