St. Lucia Distillers

St Lucia Distillers Group of Companies emerged from a tradition of the on-site, house-special rum production that was a common feature of the West Indian sugar plantation. Sugars by-product, molasses was fermented and distilled to rum, the demand for which has been a constant through the fluctuations of West Indian plantation economies. By the late 1950s, two distilleries remained, one at Dennery, the site of the Barnard family plantation, and the other Geest-owned at Roseau, the location of the now St Lucia Distillers Group of Companies. Formed in 1972 when the two distilleries amalgamated producing a now-discontinued blend of rum whose name reflected the merger, Denros Bounty Rum. The Barnard family bought out the Geest shares in 1992 and in 1997 sold shares to Trinidad-based Angostura Ltd., giving the company a wider regional presence and the capital to pursue the product development philosophy which has since characterised St Lucia Distillers Group of Companies. In 2005 the ...