John Freeman
In 1953 I started working for a packaging company Colodense which was part of a group of factories owned by E.S.&A. Robinsons of Bristol. They were major employers and their factories produced a great variety of packaging. Colodense printed Cellophane and was 50% owned by British Cellophane of Bridgwater. In the late 50's British Cellophane took over completely and Colodense became part of the Coutaulds Packaging Group which later had factories in Scotlan[Scotcel] Holland [ENVI] France[Fournier] Spain[Blasi] Greece[Neopak]
After some years in the production deparments I transferred to internal export sales to support the outside export sales staff. I started my own travels in 1974 to meet the opportunities being presented by Middle East countries which were developing ther own food industries. Between 1974 and 1993 I covered the whole area as well as visiting Iran and Afghanistan. Later my travels took me to India Pakistan Sri Lanka China Hong Kong Singapore Reunion Madagascar. Mauritius Sudan and for a short time to the Caribbean and Central America.
During my travels I was treated with the utmost repect and received great hospitality making many friends along the way.
My two books tell of my travels and the many strange comic and sometimes bizarre incidents that took place. They also tell of the wonderful people I had the pleasure of workin with in the various countries.
The Middle East always gets bad media coverage and much negative reporting as a result of internal political and religious rivalries and too much interference from the West. But lookbeneath the surface and ordinary people are trying to run businesses in the same way as here to benefit their customers and provide a good living for their families and also raise the standard of living intheir own country. Their efforts are constantly being hampered by power hungry dictators, absolute monarchs and fundamentalists trying to hold back any signs of progress.
So my mission was to show a more positive picture particularly of the Middle East and I hope you enjoy my stories
