Frank Samuel (1889–1954) was a British businessman, inventor and philanthropist who was a managing director and later chairman of the

United Africa Company The United Africa Company (UAC) was a British company which principally traded in West Africa during the 20th century. The United Africa Company was formed in 1929 as a result of the merger of Royal Niger Company, The Niger Company, which had b ...

(UAC).

Life

Samuel was born into a family that ran a music business, the business manufactured pianos and other music instruments. His grandfather founded Barnett Samuel and Sons Ltd in 1832, the firm originally traded pen, watch and silverware articles and then clocks before moving into trade in varied musical instruments. By 1913 the firm had developed into a supplier of drums and trumpets for the

British army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

. In 1913, Barnett Samuel introduced 'Decca' talking instrument into the market, Along with his two first cousins, Wilfred and Conrad Samuel, Frank Samuel co-founded Decca Gramaphone Company. The three Samuel cousins ran the company before selling their interests to investors in 1928. Frank Samuel and his wife then proceeded to travel around the world. While in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

, he was recruited to join UAC by a business associate, Waley Cohen. Samuel was made director of UAC in 1931. UAC achieved financial health during his tenure. Samuel preferred business during periods of

price stability Price stability is a goal of monetary and fiscal policy aiming to support sustainable rates of economic activity. Policy is set to maintain a very low rate of inflation or deflation. For example, the European Central Bank (ECB) describes price s ...

. To reduce commodity price volatility, he encouraged cooperation among European trading firms. Under Samuel, the firm benefited from war time price controls and restrictions as UAC had the largest share of government quotas allocated to trading firms by the

British government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

. In situations where government quotas were negligible such as in the

timber trade There are multiple market layers for wood products. Each country has its own domestic market that may be connected to a regional or global market. Timber supply to domestic markets in many tropical forest countries is largely provided by informal lo ...

, UAC invested in a large plywood factory with annual output worth 3 million pounds in 1950. In 1950, sales of UAC had risen to $145m.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel, Frank Unilever 1889 births 1954 deaths 20th-century British businesspeople