Barbados is a sovereign island country in the Lesser Antilles, in the Caribbean. Despite being classified as an Atlantic island, Barbados is considered to be a part of the Caribbean, where it is ranked as a leading tourist destination. Forty percent of the tourists come from the UK, with the US and Canada making up the next large groups of visitors to the island. The Government of Barbados also owns a handful of state-owned companies some of which are outlined below.
This list includes notable companies with primary headquarters located in the country. The industry and sector follow the Industry Classification Benchmark taxonomy. Organizations which have ceased operations are included and noted as defunct.
| Name | Industry | Sector | Headquarters | Founded | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bajan Helicopters | Industrials | Delivery services | Bridgetown | 1989 | Air transport services, defunct 2009 |
| Banks Barbados Brewery | Consumer goods | Brewers | Wildey | 1961 | Brewery |
| Barbados Light and Power Company | Utilities | Conventional electricity | Bridgetown | 1911 | Power utility, part of Emera (Canada) |
| Barbados National Oil Company Limited | Oil & gas | Exploration & production | Woodbourne [1] | 1982 [1] | State-owned energy |
| Barbados Stock Exchange | Financials | Investment services | Bridgetown | 1987 | Primary exchange |
| Barbados Water Authority | Utilities | Water | Saint Michael | 1980 [2] | State-owned utility |
| Barbados Ice Cream Company | Consumer goods | Food products | Bridgetown | 1901 | Frozen desserts, food products |
| CariAccess | Telecommunications | Fixed line telecommunications | Bridgetown | 1999 | Internet service provider, defunct 2007 |
| Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation | Consumer services | Broadcasting & entertainment | Bridgetown | 1963 | State-owned TV and radio |
| Caribbean Media Corporation | Consumer services | Broadcasting & entertainment | Bridgetown | 2000 | Television content |
| CarIFS | Financials | Financial services | Bridgetown | 1999 | Money movement |
| Central Bank of Barbados | Financials | Banks | Bridgetown | 1972 | Formal central bank |
| Chefette | Consumer services | Restaurants & bars | Bridgetown [3] | 1972 [4] | Fast-food restaurant chain |
| CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank | Financials | Banks | Warrens | 2005 | Bank, part of CIBC (Canada) |
| Columbus Communications | Telecommunications | Fixed line telecommunications | Bridgetown | 2004 | Part of Liberty Global |
| Ice Records | Consumer services | Broadcasting & entertainment | Bayleys | 1974 [5] | Record label |
| Jesus Army Productions | Consumer services | Broadcasting & entertainment | Cave Hill | 2003 | Performing arts |
| Mount Gay Rum | Consumer goods | Distillers & vintners | Bridgetown | 1703 | Distilleries (rum), part of Rémy Cointreau (France) |
| Ozone Wireless | Telecommunications | Mobile Telecommunications | Bridgetown | 2017 | Privately held |
| REDjet | Consumer services | Airlines | Bridgetown | 2010 | Airline, defunct 2012 |
| Sagicor Financial Corporation | Financials | Life insurance | Wildey | 2002 | Insurance |
| Solar Dynamics | Consumer goods | Durable household products | Bridgetown | 1972 | Solar hot-water heaters |
| Starcom Network | Consumer services | Broadcasting & entertainment | Wildey | 1935 | Radio broadcasting group, part of ONE Caribbean Media (Trinidad & Tobago) |
| Sunbeach | Telecommunications | Fixed line telecommunications | Bridgetown | 1995 | Internet service provider, defunct 2013 |
| TeleBarbados | Telecommunications | Fixed line telecommunications | Bridgetown | 2006 | Telecommunications, now a part of Cable & Wireless Communications |
| The Barbados Advocate | Consumer services | Publishing | Bridgetown | 1895 | Newspaper |
| The Daily Nation | Consumer services | Publishing | Bridgetown | 1973 | Newspaper, part of ONE Caribbean Media (Trinidad and Tobago) |
| Trans Island Air 2000 | Consumer services | Airlines | Christ Church | 1982 | Airline, defunct 2004 |
| Voice of Barbados | Consumer services | Broadcasting & entertainment | Bridgetown | 1981 | Radio, part of Starcom Network |
| West Indies Sugar & Trading Company | Consumer goods | Food products | Bridgetown | 2008 | Sugar |
| WIBISCO | Consumer goods | Food products | Bridgetown | 1910 [6] | Food products, subsidiary of Bermudez Biscuit Company Limited (Trinidad and Tobago) |
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of North America, and is the most easterly of the Caribbean islands. It lies on the boundary of the South American and the Caribbean Plates. Its capital and largest city is Bridgetown.
Bridgetown is the capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael. Bridgetown is sometimes locally referred to as "The City", but the most common reference is simply "Town". As of 2014, its metropolitan population stands at roughly 110,000.
Barbados is a continental island in the North Atlantic Ocean and is located at 13°10' north of the equator, and 59°32' west of the Prime Meridian. As the easternmost isle of the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies, Barbados lies 160 kilometres (100 mi) east of the Windward Islands and Caribbean Sea. The maritime claim for Barbados is a territorial sea of 12 nmi, with an exclusive economic zone of 200 nmi which gives Barbados a total maritime area of 186,898 km2 (72,162 sq mi). Of the total EEZ area, 70,000 km2 is set aside for offshore oil exploration. A pending application to UNCLOS has placed for consideration a continental shelf 200 nmi to the east and south. To the west, most of Barbados' maritime boundaries consist of median lines with neighbours. These neighbours include: Martinique, and Saint Lucia to the northwest, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the west, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela to the southwest, and Guyana to the southeast.
Since the island country's independence in 1966, the economy of Barbados has been transformed from a low-income economy dependent upon sugar production into a high-income economy based on tourism and the offshore sector. Barbados went into a deep recession in the 1990s after 3 years of steady decline brought on by fundamental macroeconomic imbalances. After a painful re-adjustment process, the economy began to grow again in 1993. Growth rates have averaged between 3%–5% since then. The country's three main economic drivers are: tourism, the international business sector, and foreign direct-investment. These are supported in part by Barbados operating as a service-driven economy and an international business centre.
The country of Barbados is divided into sub-regions known as parishes.
The Barbados Stock Exchange or BSE is Barbados' main stock exchange. Its headquarters are in the capital-city Bridgetown. The body was established in 1987 by the Parliament of Barbados as the Securities Exchange of Barbados (SEB), and remained known as such until August 2, 2001. The unique four symbol alphanumeric Market Identifier Code (MIC) used to identify the BSE as defined under ISO 10383. of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is: XBAB.
Banks (Barbados) Breweries Ltd. is a Caribbean brewery founded in 1961 in St. Michael, Barbados. It is part of the Banks Holdings Limited group.
CIBC Caribbean is a financial services company based in Barbados and the Caribbean subsidiary of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). The bank was founded in 2002 as FirstCaribbean International Bank through the merger of the Caribbean operations of Barclays Bank and CIBC, and in March 2006 both CIBC and Barclays announced that Barclays wished to exercise their option to exit the Caribbean venture completely resulting in CIBC gaining majority-control of the bank. In June 2011, it was announced the bank would be renamed CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank "to be more closely aligned to the CIBC brand, while still maintaining the FirstCaribbean name and local identity." The name was then later changed CIBC Caribbean in January 2024. The majority of the bank's revenues are generated by its operations in Barbados, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands.
Chefette Restaurants is the largest fast food restaurant chain based in the Caribbean island nation of Barbados. Currently operating throughout the island in 14 locations, Chefette is known for its broasted chicken meals as well as a local curried-'meat + vegetable' roll-up or wrap, locally known as a roti. Chefette was founded by a Trinidadian businessman named Assad John Haloute, as well as members of the Naime and Nadur families who migrated to Barbados in the 1970s. In 1972 the trio opened the first Chefette Restaurant at Fontabelle, St. Michael. As the success of the chain grew over the next three decades, the restaurant chain continued its expansion. The company's trademark colours are yellow and purple.
The Port of Bridgetown, is a seaport in Bridgetown on the southwest coast of Barbados. Situated at the North-Western end of Carlisle Bay, the harbour handles all of the country's international bulk ship-based trade and commerce. In addition to international-shipping the Deep Water Harbour is the port of entry for southern-Caribbean cruise ships. The port is one of three designated ports of entry in Barbados, along with the privately owned Port Saint Charles marina and the Sir Grantley Adams International Airport. The port's time zone is GMT −4, and it handles roughly 700,000 cruise passengers and 900,000 tonnes of containerised cargo per year.
Republic Bank Limited is a leading Caribbean financial institution headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago. It has operations in Anguilla, Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. It was formerly a division of Barclays Bank in Trinidad and Tobago.
Tourism is one of the Caribbean's major economic sectors, with 25 million visitors contributing $49 billion towards the area's gross domestic product in 2013, which represented 14% of its total GDP. It is often described as, "the most tourism-dependent region in the world".
The United States and Barbados have had cordial bilateral relations since Barbados' independence in 1966. The United States has supported the government's efforts to expand the country's economic base and to provide a higher standard of living for its citizens. Barbados is a beneficiary of the U.S. Caribbean Basin Initiative. U.S. assistance is channeled primarily through multilateral agencies such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank, as well as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) office in Bridgetown.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and introduction to Barbados:
Barbados–Canada relations are the bilateral relations between Canada and Barbados. In 1907, the Government of Canada opened a Trade Commissioner Service to the Caribbean region located in Bridgetown, Barbados. Following Barbadian independence from the United Kingdom in November 1966, the Canadian High Commission was established in Bridgetown, Barbados on 27 September 1973. There is a High Commission of Barbados in Ottawa and a Barbadian Consulate in Toronto. The relationship between both nations today partly falls under the larger gambit of Canada–Caribbean relations. As of 2014 it is estimated that as much as 8% of Canadian foreign investments in Barbados.
Relations between Barbados and China began on 4 September 1967 with Barbados recognizing the People's Republic of China from 30 May 1977, just over one decade after the eastern Caribbean island nation's independence from the United Kingdom.
The historical ties between the governments of Barbados and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) are long and complex, including settlement, post-colonialism and modern bilateral relations. The two countries are related through common history spanning 339 years (1627–1966). Since the Barbadian date of political independence, these nations continue to share ties through the Commonwealth of Nations. Until becoming a Commonwealth republic in 2021, Barbados also shared the same Head of State, with Queen Elizabeth II as their Monarch.
Barbadian-French relations are the bilateral relations between the two countries, Barbados and France. Both countries have established diplomatic relations on May 3, 1968. Barbados is represented in France through its embassy in Brussels (Belgium). France is represented in Barbados through its embassy in Castries, led by and an additional honorary consulate in Bridgetown.
Prostitution in Barbados is legal but related activities such as brothel keeping and solicitation are prohibited. The country is a sex tourism destination, including female sex tourism.
University of the West Indies at Cave Hill is a public research university in Cave Hill, Barbados. It is one of five general campuses in the University of the West Indies system.
Grant established Ice Records in 1974.
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