The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian business yesterday said it is pushing for a stronger year following a “slow” 2024 by partnering with stores on the Family Islands to sell its products.

“We want to also locate boutique stores on every island because we want our products in every island, primarily because we have designs that highlight every island,” principal of Cultureware, Gina Luree, said. “So we want to be in every island. We’re not looking to open stores. We’re looking to partner with stores to sell the product.

“We want to locate stores that sell Bahamian products in the islands, even if it’s the airport that can carry our products. So we want to partner with someone to do that. Right now, we are in Eleuthera. We are in Harbour Island. We are in Freeport. And so this year we’re going to be hitting more and more of the Family Islands to locate boutique stores that would be willing to carry the line.”

The retailer, which sells “uniquely designed ceramics that portray the Bahamian culture”, is looking to expand to Exuma, Andros and Abaco through these partnerships. Ms Luree, looking back on 2024, said it was a slow year but it prompted her to hold a first art show since the COVID-19 pandemic, which is where she unveiled the design of Cultureware’s new Junkanoo line for feedback.

“So 2024 was a little slow, but what we did in December, we had a show, an art show, and that helped to boost us and make people more aware of what we were doing,” Ms Luree said. “Luckily for us, we were able to have a few sales from one or two ministries that were having events, and so we were able to produce stuff for them.

“So the art show, it was called Culture is Me. I put the show on, and it was the first time we did a show after COVID. So the first time we did an art show was in 2019, and then very shortly after that, COVID came, and we were not able to do a lot of stuff. So we thought that it would be a great time to go ahead and to introduce ourselves again to the local market.

“At that time, what we also did was use that opportunity to unveil our 2025 design. We introduced to those that came the opportunity that we are going to afford every home in The Bahamas. We have designed a line of dinnerware that is going to come boxed, a 20-piece set, four settings of Junkanoo dinnerware.”

Adding that there was not enough time to push and promote the line “the way we wanted to”, Ms Luree said she is looking at an official launch date for either the end of February or March 1.

“So what we’re going to do is right now we’re having them boxed,” Ms Luree said. “I designed the box and we’re going to bring in the boxes. And so what we want to do is we want to have a launch, like any launch, like when John Bull will have the launch for Fendi. We want to invite the press, we want to invite persons to be able to purchase them on the spot.

“For those persons that came to our show in December and they bought a mug from us, we’re going to put their name in a draw so they’re going to be able to win a set. And then we want to invite different people, the Government, whoever we could get to be a part of the launch. And then we want to have music, like a live band and hors d’oeuvres. We want to do something really big.”