British expatriate John Poynton is set to retire and leave Saudi Arabia after spending 30 years in the catering business for which he has traveled across Saudi Arabia and met a large number of Saudis and expatriates alikeTime to retire John Poynton leaves Saudi Arabia after decades of feeding people. (SG photo by Bizzie Frost)After 30 years in Saudi Arabia, it is time for caterer John Poynton to retire, and for his wife, Annette, to hang up her abaya for the last time. Poynton is from Stoke on Trent in Staffordshire, the heart of the pottery industry in the Midlands of England, and his first venture into expatriate life was to Zambia in the late 1960s. “I worked in the hotel business there for seven years, and then went back to the UK and worked in hotels in North Wales. In those days, you worked very long hours in the hotel industry, whether in Africa or in the UK, usually about 18 hours a day. I never saw my family,” he reminisced. In 1977, an opportunity to work in industrial catering came up with Grand Metropolitan Hotels who had secured two very large contracts with ARAMCO. Their proposed schedule of three months in Saudi Arabia, followed by three weeks at home, was an attractive deal. “I started my career in Saudi Arabia in the Eastern Province,” said Poynton. “I was the Catering Manager in a camp at Shedgum, about 30 kms from Hofuf. There were 10,000 people in this camp. We had nine diners catering to Western, Indian, Thai, Korean, Pakistani, Turkish, and Filipino expats, as well as lots of other smaller national groups mixed up with them. We provided the full service, which included housekeeping, laundry, entertainment – the whole package. My responsibility as one of three catering managers was operating three of those diners, catering for about 3,500 people, spread out over those three dining halls. The camp was entirely men-only.” He remembers that arriving in Dhahran for the first time was something of a shock. “As you came in to land, all you could see for miles and miles were the oil flares. The entire Eastern Province was lit up by these flares, which of course you don't get now, but it was quite a sight in those days. Once you got off the plane, the first thing that hit you, apart from the heat, was the smell and the fumes from all those flares and the oil burning.” Although Poynton has always been a fairly adaptable person and didn't have any problems in settling down into the camp life, there were many people who couldn't settle. “With all those diners, we had a lot of chefs and chef managers, and although they could cope with the work, I think it was more to do with the restricted lifestyle that they just couldn't cope with. Life in an Aramco Camp was just work and sleep, work and sleep, seven days a week for three months, and a lot of people couldn't cope with that.” His next move was to Riyadh in September 1980 and this time he was joined by his wife and two small children. “You couldn't really call it a city in those days,” he reminisced. “But it was starting to develop very fast. It was a terribly over-crowded place and it was quicker to walk to the old airport than it was to drive from our office on the old airport road. There were basically only two main roads, so getting around Riyadh in those days was horrendous – it is probably getting a bit like that again now!” he added with a laugh. “But I liked Riyadh far more in those old days then than I do now...it is just like any other massive city. I find it very impersonal, whereas before it was a far more friendly, open place, probably a little bit more like Jeddah is. I have mentioned this to Saudis and they say that because the Saudis there come from different areas to work in Riyadh, there is not much friendliness amongst them.” Poynton went on to talk about major changes that he has witnessed in the Kingdom. “In the eighties, what they built here was fantastic, especially the inter-city road network. These improved dramatically. In Riyadh, the architecture and all the building that has gone on there is fantastic. As far as Saudis are concerned, the education has also improved dramatically. However, as someone who has been working in the service industry all these years, I have been involved in lots of the ‘hands-on' type of work. I don't think enough has been done to promote technical skills. I think personally that there should be far more technical institutes, and more encouragement for Saudis to go into ‘hands-on' work and that sort of thing, rather than the universities. They are coming out of universities now and they can't find jobs – just like they can't in many other places in the world.” After another brief break in the UK from 1988 to 1994, Poynton returned to Saudia Arabia to work for Taylor Plan, now called Unique Catering Services. His base this time was Jeddah and his work has taken him all over the Kingdom, feeding all sorts of different nationalities in some very remote areas. He has always enjoyed his job and says: “I like supplying catering services to people. I have enjoyed the work setting up the camps and mobilizing them, and getting out and about rather than sitting in an office.” Although many of us think only of the restrictions that expatriate women face in the Kingdom, Poynton mentioned restrictions that many of his bachelor colleagues have to contend with. “When they have time off over the weekend, they can't get into the shopping malls, because they are bachelors. I know this frustrates them....this ban applies to all expatriates...and they all complain about it bitterly,” he stated. Poynton has always enjoyed the Jeddah expatriate social life, something he will miss once he has left. However, he feels that it would be beneficial to both Saudis and expats if there was more social interaction between them. “The interaction is only at the work level, and very rarely at a personal level. I would love to see that change because I think we would have a far better perspective of each other.” Poynton leaves on April 3, starting off with a three-month tour of Europe with his wife in their caravan, and then on to their permanent base in the Philippines. We wish them “Bon Voyage” and a happy retirement.
