Saiccor - The First 50 Years 5.8 MB - Sappi

The Cantacuzene Period (1952–1965)
The original South Barrow Hotel (c� 1920)
Saiccor bought the New South Barrow Hotel in 1953 to accommodate
the Italian artisans� Once Saiccor was in operation, Cantacuzene tried
to sell the hotel but could not, and so decided to run it as a business�
He renamed it The Lido, gave it a facelift, and hired an Austrian,
Hans Ainhirn, to run it� As the hotel was only just ‘jogging along’,
Cantacuzene added an Olympic size swimming pool in 1957 and a
small nightclub� The dance floor was level with the bottom of the
pool and the dividing wall between the two had a plate-glass window
through which the night revellers could watch the swimmers� The
Lido soon became very popular with people from Durban, particularly
for Sunday lunch at the pool and Saturday night at the nightclub,
and was the venue of most Saiccor functions, including some lavish
affairs like the Carnevale di Venezia, and beauty pageants� However,
its popularity waned and it was sold in 1986 by Gordon Campbell� It
The New South Barrow Hotel (c� 1930), purchased by Saiccor in 1953 to
accommodate the large influx of Italian artisans
9
Alec L Thomson, TOP,
(joined 5 January 1953),
Oakley Tainton, MIDDLE,
(joined 1 March 1953)
and John Carrick,
BOTTOM, (joined 1 July
1953) became the first
employees to achieve 20
years service in 1973