Michael Bernard, managing director of cigarette distributor Carreras Limited, is retiring in December after 22 years, five of them spent running the company. But at 53 years old, he has no plans to fade away.

He will retain ties with Carreras as a director of the board, but Bernard's real interest now is in philanthropy, especially in the area of education, and in breeding his thoroughbred horses.

"I have had a rich and mutually rewarding career, very successful stint, now at a point of self-actualisation and can go off into retirement," said Bernard.

It's understood that he is working on an education foundation.

The announcement of his departure was officially released at market close Wednesday but was being mentioned publicly a day before. The Carreras stock closed 3.6 per cent higher Wednesday at J$52.85, on the day Richard Pandohie was named successor, but closed down 3.3 per cent on Thursday at J$51.12.

Pandohie will wrap up a three-year rotation in the Caribbean and Central American division of Carreras' parent company British American Tobacco to take up the promotion.

Such rotations tend to form part of succession planning in the BAT group.

Pandohie, a Jamaican, formerly worked as operations manager with the Jamaica Biscuit Company when it was owned by Carreras, as operations manager, Pandohie, a Jamaican, formerly worked as operations manager with the Jamaica Biscuit Company when it was owned by Carreras, then joined other companies, including Kraft Foods and IGL, before his return to Carreras.

He inherits a strong company from Bernard that - while its tax burden is more than J$8 billion annually and smuggling threatens its market share and sales - is in the top five of the most profitable listed companies, with net income running at J$3 billion annually, and whose stock is prized because of Carreras' generous dividend policy.

Bernard first joined Carreras Group Limited in 1988. Three years later, he was appointed general manager of the Jamaica Biscuit Company but was back in the tobacco division in 1995 when he assumed, concurrently, the positions of managing director of two subsidiaries, the Cigarette Company of Jamaica Limited and Agricultural Products of Jamaica Limited.

In 2000, he was seconded to Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, the US subsidiary of British American Tobacco, and returned to the Cigarette Company in 2001.

Then in 2005, he was appointed managing director of Carreras Limited, which dropped 'group' from its name after locking down its manufacturing base in Jamaica to concentrate solely on distribution. Cigarette Company was wound up as a result, and Carreras also sold off other non-core businesses such as its hotel properties and biscuit-manu-facturing and packaging enterprises.

Bernard now delivers approxi-mately J$10 billion of revenues annually, up from J$7 billion five years ago.

Bernard said he would also retain his seats on the Salada and Peak Bottling Company boards, as well as that of his high school alma mater, Jamaica College.

sabrina.gordon@gleanerjm.com