business around VG to turn into sculptural pieces, bowls and jewellery. “As far as the art world goes, [recycling] is just a given,” she said. “You can take anything and make art from it.” Ms. Steinberg also proposed a program to Rosewood Little Dix Bay Resort for when it reopens that could create even more jobs. The resort could send its glass off to her and a few people she employs, and they could turn it into tableware and souvenirs that Little Dix could repurpose, she explained. “There’s so much waste in the world,” Ms. Steinberg said. “We really need to be making the most of the garbage.
EC Soap Co. hopes to go international CONOR KING DEVITT
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lexandra Durante hopes to help legitimise a long-ignored opportunity for business owners in the British Virgin Islands.
The executive director of the Eastern Caribbean Soap Company believes cooperation will make it financially possible for local companies to export BVI-specialty products to buyers in the mainland United States.
The method: establish a working partnership with up-and-coming entrepreneurs in the territory that reduces shipping costs for everyone involved. To that end, Ms. Durante, other local business owners and government officials have had discussions about accessing a fulfilment centre in Florida. Such a centre could serve as the US hub for BVI products, acting as the middleman between Tortola producers and American consumers and driving down shipping prices for buyers, Ms. Durante explained. “We just need to pave the way forward as business owners and tap into something,” she said. Helping get such a venture off the ground would be the latest in a series of business-savvy steps for Ms. Durante, whose sales career started when she took over a Crafts Alive Village stand from her aunt in 2012.
While there, she sold homemade jewellery and crafts, as well as her signature product: Tahitian oysters, each with a guaranteed pearl inside that she promised to polish. Later that year, Ms. Durante took her business – then named Pearls VI – to Bamboushay Pottery on Main Street. Three years in, she expanded into local hot sauces, soaps and bath/body products. “After awhile, the soap started paying rent over the jewellery and it was a lot less hassle and a lot easier to make,” Ms. Durante explained. She rebranded her business as the EC Soap Company and took it to its current facility in Wickhams Cay II, where she specialises in a variety of products that utilise local raw materials – like a bundle of salt harvested directly from Salt Island. From there, her operation expanded into wholesale markets like villas, hotels and charter/ bareboat vessels. As the company grew, it strove to emphasise waste reduction by utilising reusable product bottles for wholesale customers, according to Josh Davies, director of wholesale and retail operations. The next step came this May, when EC Soap Company began selling its products online. Foreign purchases, however, have remained at a trickle due to the high cost of shipping, Ms. Durante explained. She noted, for example, that sending a pound of their product just to St. Thomas costs the buyer more than $30 in shipping fees. “We have the international demand, we have the local supply, we just can’t export it,” Ms. Durante said. She hopes, however, that local cooperation will change that by the summer of 2018. AUGUST 2017 EDITION
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