The first speaker, the Saint Lucia Distillers group of companies HR Director Margaret Monplaisir, was introduced by Jennifer Gaston following the national anthem and prayers by Father Cecil Goodman. In a somber tone she remarked: “Twenty-nine months ago we stood here in shock as we watched the heart of our company go up in flames. On that day—2 May 2007—we lost a part of ourselves and the face of Saint Lucia Distillers has changed.” In a brighter tone she continued: “Today we can proudly say that we have triumphed over the challenges of the past twenty-nine months and we have a new state of the art production facility and offices which our staff are standing by with great anticipation to show off.”

It was a warm Friday afternoon of October 30th and staff of Saint Lucia Distillers and specially invited guests gathered on the grounds of the compound warmly greeted by a violin band and ushers dressed in madras. The occasion was the opening of brand new facilities of Saint Lucia Distillers at Roseau, following a fire, which destroyed part of the plant in 2007.

Laurie Barnard, managing director of Saint Lucia Distillers in his opening remarks declared: “We are here to celebrate the official opening of our new building.

“On the second of May the building was completely destroyed by fire. Thirty-five years of records, of plans, of manuals, of correspondents, medals, trophies and all sorts of irreplaceable things were lost,” Barnard continued. Also gone were packaging raw material, the blending facility, spirit stocks and the laboratory. “We were fortunate in being able to recover most of our financial records due to a good back up IT system,” the MD informed his guests. With the support of staff the main operations were moved into a new warehouse and the staff canteen converted into offices to enable the company to be up and running in a day. “This occasion is much more than the opening of a building, but the culmination of twenty-nine months of work which was brought back from the edge of a catastrophe,” Barnard said as he went on to thank and recognize the 140 staff who participated in the rebuilding. “Our chairman, directors and the management teams at all levels saw an opportunity in the great loss which we had experienced, an opportunity to improve in all the areas which now needed to be rebuilt.”

Laurie Barnard also thanked the many customers, both here and abroad, who stayed with the company throughout their rebuilding and took time to explain the input of the European Union in their growth and development as well.

“In my capacity as the director of the West Indian rum and spirit producers association, I would like to take this opportunity to mention in more detail the support given to the Caribbean rum sector. The integrated development program for the ACP Caribbean rum sector has provided funding of some 17 million Euros to ACP Caribbean states from the European community through a program which began in late 2002 and will end in June 2010,” Barnard explained. He went on to say that the program was being implemented by the West Indian rum and spirit producers on behalf of Cariforum and as the second company to submit its proposal the distillery was regarded as the most successful and proactive.

Through this assistance Saint Lucia distillers has been able to implement new Molasses pipelines and storage, new administrative offices and laboratory, new security systems and upgrading of its IT system, new blending areas for rum, new cream liqueur production, new aging warehouse, new bottling recycling plant, new sugar cane processing plant and fermentation, new staff canteen and changing rooms. The company has also invested heavily in acquiring land for the farming of sugar cane which has already started.

EU representative, Valeriano Diaz, who attended Friday’s ceremony stated that since arriving in the region in January 2008 that he was quickly made aware of the importance of rum in the Caribbean from an economical stand point. “I must say how pleased we are at the European commission to be associated with it (Saint Lucia distillers) since it was part of the process to have the plant back to full capacity following the fire of 2007,” Diaz says. He pointed out that Saint Lucia Distillers was seen as a major player in the Saint Lucian economy as the second largest revenue generator in the manufacturing sector.

Standing in for the chairman of Saint Lucia Distillers, Mr Leroy Parris, was one of the directors Terrence Thornhill.

“It is with a sense of accomplishment and pride that we are here this afternoon to celebrate a launch in a new chapter in Saint Lucia distillers history, the opening of the administration and production facilities,” Thornhill remarked. “For Saint Lucia Distillers this has been a long and arduous journey for management and staff, who have endured much inconvenience and difficult working conditions since the fire,” he added. Thornhill went on to highlight some of the international achievements of Saint Lucia distillers adding; “It is our goal to have at least three or four of our rums and liqueurs recognized internationally.”

According to Deputy Prime Minister, Leonard Montoute, who spoke on behalf of the Government, “In this harsh uncompromising and competitive business world business demands that one be committed, industrious and resilient to succeed in a climate such as what we have.”

“We know over the last year or two what environment existed for business people and to compound the situation for Distillers we know of the catastrophe two years ago. I think for a company that has been on the landscape for some four decades this in itself is testimony of the commitment to this industry and their resilience over the years and to date the greatest test is rising out of the ashes of the destroyed building.” The social transformation minister went on to applaud the company for its social work in the community and island.

As the official speeches came to an end the new building was then blessed by Father Cecil Goodman. Dame Pearlette then did the ceremonial ribbon-cutting along with Laurie Barnard before guests were invited to take the official tour of the premises. After that it was time to celebrate with some music, food and of course the wide range of drinks from Saint Lucia Distillers.