Banks

Banks Breweries Ltd. is a Caribbean brewery founded in 1961 in St. Michael, Barbados. It is part of the Banks Holdings Limited group. Banks Beer was started as an idea formed by Peter D'Aguiar, a Guyanese entrepreneur. In the late 1950s the Barbados government offered tax concessions to encourage someone to start a local brewery. 30% of the required start-up funds were provided by Banks Diversified Industrial Holdings (DIH) of Guyana and the rest of the capital was collected by the sale of shares to local people in Barbados. A brewery was constructed at Wildey about 2 miles west of the centre of Bridgetown. On September 7, 1961, Banks (Barbados) Breweries opened for business. In the beginning, the company only produced Banks Beer but by 1963 the company added two other products to its portfolio: Milk Stout and Tiger brand Malt, the latter of which can be found in the Caribbean, South America, Asia, Canada, Europe and the United States. The government soon realised that the granted concessions were losing them revenue, so withdrew them. Banks(DIH) were somewhat unhappy with this decision and sold their stake to Barbados Shipping & Trading, a local conglomerate. Unfortunately, Banks(DIH) retained the rights to the use of the name Banks except in certain islands of the Caribbean, which inhibited the local company from exporting the product. Banks first began exporting in 1968, with the first two export countries of Saint Vincent and Dominica located nearby. In 1973 the company acquired the right to use the name Banks in the whole of the anglophone Caribbean. For a while, the beer was brewed under licence in the UK by King & Barnes of Horsham, Sussex and marketed under the name "Bajan" but with a very similar style of bottle and bottle decoration. Banks Beer received its first International Award from the Lager Beer Competition in England in 1971. The company would continue to win awards through the years.

Source: Wikipedia