Rex Rozario, Part 4: A 10,000-ft. view of his Business Ventures, the Industry, and Life

Estimated reading time: 16 minutes

Matties: It seems like from a young man at 19 starting in Richmond, helping the Rolling Stones get a launch, and Jim Marshall, who went on to start Marshall amplifiers, you were there on the ground floor of that as well.

Rozario: I realized how he built the first 15 amp bass amplifier because bass needed that sound, and then suddenly that took off like hotcakes. Then he went to 25 watts and 50 watts, and then at 100 watts he went into a manufacturing unit and forgot the music shop he had. That just stayed behind with members of his family. He concentrated on the amplifier manufacturing and Marshall took off. He started in a little town outside of London called Hanwell and I was there.

Matties: Yeah, you were around for the start of a lot of the things, hanging out with Marshall and Paul Eisler and all that.

Rozario: The whole purpose is we're all born the same way and we have a choice in the direction we want to go. Most people get that option, some don't take it, some prefer a different job, but some stay there until they retire. Some decide to try something new. I was always curious and doing something different and new and following it up. Obviously, it’s difficult in this computer world. I wouldn't say I'm 100% computer literate, but I get by.

Matties: But you're smart enough to surround yourself with people that do. That's the difference. Having the wisdom to know what to do, if not necessarily knowing how to do it.

Rozario: And getting a team who has confidence in you and believes in what you do. They have to believe in you to have a following and think, "Okay I believe I can do it." In the early days, when we first started here, undergraduates were coming home to Crediton for their recreations. Two guys from Bristol University, who were studying aerodynamics, were here for two weeks of vacation work, and decided not to go back. I said to them, "Go back and finish. You guys are at university and should finish." They said, "No. This is something we want to do."

I still look for things that could happen. About two years ago in my own country of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) where they produce a lot of clothes and cotton and such, I stumbled into the development of a natural substitute for silk. They found that bamboo, which is the plant grown widely in the eastern Asian countries, could actually produce a substitute silk from the bamboo fibers. They developed this and as soon as word got out, the Chinese got wind of it and grabbed it. Of course they don't patent anything and now it's a big industry starting off with producing an artificial silk with bamboo.

I had an opportunity to join a company in the Far East where I would be financing the package and I looked at it. I looked at all the numbers and thought well, it's a long way away; you’ve got to be on the premises or you can finance something and find out in the end that it could all disappear. But it's a new technology and it was worth looking at.

Matties: It's being mindful and open-minded about all it all.

Rozario: Other than that I’m glad we're still here and hope that we can grow stage by stage, and hopefully I'll be talking to you in a few years about something else like all the progress we have made with the new factory.

Matties: And we'll be at the opening of your new restaurant in one year’s time. It's good to stay busy and you obviously have a lot going on, so I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me today and wish you the best of luck with these new endeavors.

Rozario: Thank you, Barry.

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