Aquarius Caribbean

4 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 9, ISSUE 8 AQUAR IUS CAR I BBEAN exactly around the time that he stepped out of the company, we came into COVID.” Van Lieshout admits it was a bit of a rough start because they had to adjust to the fact that her father, and her mother who also helped in the business, weren’t there anymore to help with the operations. Today, van Lieshout operates the company alongside Ramiro Balentina, her husband and Operational Manager, and Ferdy Gevers, who was brought in as Engineering Manager in 2019. Adjusting to the challenges of COVID was difficult for Aquarius Caribbean in the early days, due to the very strict lockdowns on the island. The first eight-week lockdown resulted in the company making the difficult decision to reduce staff numbers by 35 percent. Van Lieshout recounts, “You can imagine that if your business is down for eight weeks, that has a huge impact. When we opened again, we made some adjustments, and then COVID was there all year up and down – we had a curfew in the evening, we had some days that we couldn’t work. Then the next year, we had another lockdown for seven weeks. Of course, we were already a little bit adjusted to the new rules, but it was very tough.” Describing 2020 and 2021 as a very low key time for the business, Van Lieshout reports that 2022 has been much better, with business picking up and all members of staff returning to work, along with several new hires. “We bounced back really good. It was a tough time, but eventually we came out better,” she shares. The next challenge facing Aquarius Caribbean was what van Lieshout describes as “enormous price increases,” as a result of shipping issues. She notes, “We live on an island, so we don’t have anything here. Everything has to come from Europe or from the U.S., and the prices went through the roof. So, we had to be more creative.” Importing larger quantities of materials from