Business View Caribbean | Jan 2019

57 and thrive in the current business environment by employing more targeted strategies.” Here’s a fun and unusual item of note: certain aspects of baking are price-controlled by the government in St. Lucia - more specifically, two particular types of bread. Pan bread is priced at a certain weight. The more popular size (called large pan bread) costs five EC dollars, while Creole bread (a small bread weighing approximately two ounces that must have two pointed ends) has a definite price attached to it, as well. These two anchor prices influence the price of all other breads. To keep abreast of the news in their different industry sectors, Glace Supermarket is a member of the St. Lucia Bakers Association and the Petroleum Dealers Association. As for marketing, Bousquet admits, “Our company is in a transition phase.We have a Facebook presence and are thinking of going exclusively through social media, and actually focusing specifically on the bread. Culturally, as a company, we’re trying to decide which way is best to move forward. Over time, we’ve been engaged in different industries as a means of expansion, including opening a hotel that we ran for a decade and divested in 2018. But, recently, we’ve pulled back and decided to consolidate and focus on our main areas of strength–our supermarket and bakery– and use this as a catapult to grow the company.” As a long-time family business on St. Lucia, Glace Supermarket and its owners definitely do outreach in the community, but you won’t find out about it online or in the press. It’s done quietly, usually, on a one-to-one basis, although they do periodically provide bread and contributions to Glace Auto Accessories