After leaving the family farm to spend his formative years at sea in the Merchant Navy, Christopher saw the first container ship while it was in Melbourne, Australia, in 1970, brand new on its maiden voyage. He decided there and then that he would somehow get involved in the container industry.

During the 1970’s, Christopher worked for various companies in the container industry, one of the first being Freight Services Group, based in Durban, as the new Container Manager. A few years later, Christopher moved into the International container leasing business with a New York based company called Interpool, one of the pioneers of the container age, as the director for South and East Africa, and Saudi Arabia.