WESTERN BUREAU — St Lucian, Laurie M Barnard, on Saturday took the top spot at this year’s Ernst & Young Caribbean Entrepreneur of the Year competition, while two local proprietors — Audrey Hinchcliffe and Vincent Chang — came out on top in their respective categories.

The three were among 15 finalists from five countries in the region, who competed in five categories.

Barnard, who operates a rum distillery in St Lucia, will represent the Caribbean at Ernst & Young’s World Entrepreneur of the Year award in Monte Carlo next May.

Hinchcliffe whose company, Manpower and Maintenance Services Ltd (MMS), is the island’s largest maintenance service provider, was the winner in the service category.

Although she did not win the overall title, Hinchcliffe was elated.

“I am happy, my heart is still pounding,” she told the Observer, shortly after receiving her award. “Just to be selected among the finalists, I felt, that was an honour enough. So I said to myself anything else happens tonight is just “gravy” and that’s exactly what it has turned out to be. And so I am very, very happy.”

She dedicated the award to her more than 1,600 workers and her many clients.

MMS was incorporated in 1990.

Vincent Chang, of Tastee Ltd, won his award in the field of retail and distribution.

“I feel a bit surprised to have received it (the award) but I am very honoured and this is just to show that hard work can achieve anything,” the soft-spoken Chang said.

Tastee Ltd, with the help of state-of-the art computerised machines, produces roughly 7,000 patties per hour at its Kingston and Montego Bay factories. These are sold at 18 branch outlets and five franchise outlets. Their patties are also exported to Antigua and the Cayman Islands, with planned expansion to Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago.

Within the next 12 months, the company will add at least six more branches to its existing facilities.

Awardees in the three other categories were:

* Laurie M Barnard, for manufacturing and food processing;

* Guyana’s Anthony Thorne, for tourism; and

* Trinidad & Tobago’s Gregory Noone, emerging entrepreneur.

Hotel mogul, John Issa, who was not eligible for the top prize, was named Master Entrepreneur of the Year.

The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year programme was created by the company to honour and recognise entrepreneurs’ contributions to the world’s economies and societies. The initiative began in 1986 in the United States of America, to recognise excellence and the achievements of its entrepreneurs, and was later launched in the Caribbean.