Saint Lucia’s leading businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals are being challenged to prove they rank among the country’s best as the Saint Lucia Business Awards return with 17 categories.
The Saint Lucia Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture has launched the 12th edition of the awards, expanding the competition to recognise achievement across a private sector navigating rising costs, increased competition, technological change and workforce challenges.
Chamber President Nicholas Barnard said those pressures make the achievements of local businesses even more significant. Despite a difficult operating environment, he noted, companies continue to “invest, employ people, serve customers, innovate and find ways to grow.”
But the Chamber is looking beyond profits in determining what constitutes business excellence. Barnard said how companies treat employees and customers, contribute to their communities, embrace innovation and respond to setbacks are also important measures of success. At its core, he said, excellence requires “the ambition to improve and the resilience to keep going.”
Business Awards Planning Committee Chairperson Karen Peter said the 2026 competition reflects how the private sector itself is changing, with businesses being forced to rethink established practices and adapt to new realities.
Peter described that transition as the “necessary, sometimes painful process” of abandoning old ways to become stronger and more agile, declaring that businesses have moved “from holding the line to breaking new ground.” That evolution is also reflected in the awards themselves.
Following feedback from the private sector, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Stewardship have each been divided into large- and small-business categories. A new Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise of the Year Award has also been introduced.
Peter said the MSME category will recognise businesses demonstrating strong growth, innovation, good governance, employee development and financial stability. Other categories will recognise service excellence, entrepreneurship, export achievement, new businesses, employers, young professionals and not-for-profit organisations. Business of the Year, the Lifetime Achievement Award, People’s Choice Award, Prime Minister’s Award for Innovation and Judges’ Choice Award are among the major honours up for grabs.
Peter assured prospective entrants that winners will be selected through a “rigorous, fair and transparent” evaluation conducted by experienced business professionals.
While the trophies will ultimately go to a select group, Barnard said participation gives companies an opportunity to examine their own performance while contributing to the wider story of Saint Lucian enterprise. “The awards are not only about winning,” he said, adding that entrants help demonstrate that Saint Lucia’s private sector is “active, ambitious and capable of achieving great things.”
For the Chamber, that success has implications well beyond individual companies. Barnard pointed to businesses as major drivers of employment, investment, foreign exchange and economic growth, arguing that “a strong and resilient business community is important to a strong Saint Lucia.”
