Du Boulay’s Bottling Company has been recognized as one of the top investors in the region, having emerged the winner in the Local Investor of the Year category at this year’s Regional Investor of the Year Awards (RIYA). The RIYA is a collaborative initiative that seeks to recognize and promote the contribution of foreign and local investors to the Caribbean economy. Du Boulay’s beat two other nominees – Chocolate Dreams Ltd. from Jamaica and Bowjay from Guyana – to win the category title.
The overall award of Regional Investor of the Year was captured by Kikaboni (Healthy Flow Agro-industrial SRL), a healthy snack manufacturing company from the Dominican Republic which became the first company in the world to produce healthy snacks using moringa oleifera as one of the main ingredients.
Speaking at the conclusion of the ceremony held earlier this month during the Caribbean Investment Summit in Miami, Dunstan Du Boulay, Managing Director of the local bottling company, conveyed his appreciation to the Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA) and the Caribbean Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (CAIPA) for naming the company as the Local Investor of the Year. “I wish to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to you and your team for the many courtesies extended during my attendance at the 2016 Caribbean Investment Summit in Miami which for me was a great experience, the memories of which will be with me for years to come and for which I wish to thank you all.”
CAIPA President and CEO of Invest Saint Lucia McHale Andrew, who also attended the summit, remarked that this latest award is testimony to the fact that Saint Lucia’s manufacturing sector is on a growth trajectory. “The manufacturing industry in Saint Lucia accounts for approximately five percent of the island’s gross domestic product and employs about six percent of our workforce. The companies within this sector, including Du Boulay’s, Baron Foods, Viking Traders, St. Lucia Distillers and Windward and Leeward Brewery Limited, continue to receive international recognition and numerous accolades for their brands. We anticipate that over the next two to three years, the manufacturing sector will be further expanded with the introduction of a new flour mill in Vieux Fort, a chicken processing plant in Dennery and the expansion of Antillia Brewing Company to a full-fledged brewery, with the intention to export within and outside of the region. These prospects can only augur well for the sector and the country overall.”
The Caribbean Investment Summit was funded and co-organised by the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB), CEDA and CAIPA as part of a Regional Public Goods Initiative entitled ‘Support to Foreign Direct Investment in the Caribbean’. Participating countries included Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and the Turks & Caicos Islands.
