Joe Issa Thanks Cool Staff, Clients, Customers, Wishes Them Joyful Christmas

In-style businessman Joe Issa whose successful Cool brand adorns the Jamaican landscape, and is also said to have wide reach internationally where it is being leveraged, has expressed thanks to staff, clients and customers here and abroad for their support, and wished them a safe and joyous Christmas season.

“The Cool brand has grown to a mature 21-year-old, thanks to our loyal staff, clients and customers…I am grateful for their support and the opportunity of steering the brand, but the credit must go to those who have assured its success,” Issa says.

The Cool Group of over 50 multi-faceted companies has its origin from a single service station - Cool Oasis in St. Ann’s Bay - in 1995, with the Cool brand becoming the main asset and the first building block of the organization.

Like Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, the Cool Group’s philosophy of doing business “is to sell an attitude and a lifestyle…it also involves basic principles in which we are obligated to spend less and sell more to achieve financial success,” says Issa, who is also a mentor of the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship �" Caribbean based in Montego Bay.

“However, Cool could not have achieved such success on its own; for this, I thank my various teams and their clients and customers and wish them a safe and jolly Christmas season.

“I also want to take the opportunity to urge them to take responsibility for their whereabouts at all times,” says the Cool Group executive chairman, who is also a Eucharistic Minister of the Roman Catholic Church.

A loyal Christmas celebrant, Issa celebrates his birthday on ‘the first day of Christmas’ and last year received a Papal Blessing on the occasion from Pope Francis.

Says he: “Tis a season to be jolly; not sad because of some untimely accident or death…that’s the worst nightmare for family and friends,” adding, “One has to know what one is doing, where one is going and what is the fastest and safest way of getting there.”

As a former president of the St. Ann Chamber of Commerce and now a member of its Past President Advisory Committee, Issa stresses that his overriding concern is for the safety of all citizens.

“The truth to the matter is that despite the best efforts of the security forces one cannot expect them to be present every time a crime is being committed,” he says, stating that “we have to take responsibility for our safety by staying aware of our surroundings at all times.”

Headquartered in Ocho Rios, the Cool Group of Companies is said to span petroleum products, cellular phones, accessories and calling cards, specialized clothing stores, cambios and ATMs, automotive accessories, petrol management systems, sign construction, remittance and bill payments, air condition manufacturing and sales, and household goods, among others �" all under the Cool brand.