Local entrepreneur Terri Henry scooped the award for the Best Sustainable Entrepreneur in the OECS at the Caricom MicroPitch final on Monday night.
Ms Henry is the creator of the brand Bee Natural which has been making natural deodorants, lip balms, body balms and more, all containing local Dominican beeswax since 2018.
The MicroPitch competition provides Caribbean entrepreneurs with the opportunity to participate in a business plan competition where they can present their business in front of a high-level jury. The contest started with a total of 128 applicants from around the Caribbean and ended with a total of 5 individual winners in different categories.
Terri confides that the process of doing a business pitch was harder than she imagined ‘I got through the semi finals on passion alone but for the final I knew I had to craft an impactful presentation and with only 3 minutes you have to be concise whilst also creating a compelling vision for the judges. I was nervous but I had practiced my pitch all day as I was making products’
In her winning pitch, Terri shared her plans to make her line of ‘best-selling, body odour busting, Bee Natural deodorants’ more sustainably packaged. She explains that this is important because ‘While we’ve proven for years that our effective formula eliminates body odour while maintaining the natural chemistry of the body it’s time to further reduce our ecological footprint with creative innovation that promotes a circular economy with greater benefit for people and planet’
The Bee Natural deodorants along with the other Bee Natural products are available in pharmacies, supermarkets and health stores in Dominica and regionally in St Maarten, Guadeloupe and Martinique. Bee Natural products are also used in local hotels as gifts, spa products and merchandise and by the Dominica Tourism Authority for marketing and trade shows.
As the unifying feature of all Bee Natural products is the use of local Dominican Beeswax, Bee Natural also works to play a significant role in supporting and expanding the apiculture industry in Dominica and being an educator and champion for sustainable livelihoods and lifestyles that support and regenerate natural habitats for bees and other pollinators. In 2022 Bee Natural was a featured exhibitor and participant in the Caribbean Beekeeping Congress in St Vincent and the Hewanorra Honey Show in St Lucia showcasing the unique value added products made from beeswax.
Terri is also an enthusiastic beekeeper and in collaboration with Bee Api, another local beekeeping business, Bee Natural produces an ongoing series of educational beekeeping videos that can be viewed at bit.ly.FBBeevideos.
For more information on Bee Natural products follow @beenaturalbalm Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok.
