Samoa Stationery and Books (S.S.A.B.) Company and their President were celebrated for their entrepreneurial excellence with a triple win at the recent Samoa Business Network Awards in New Zealand.

President and C.E.O. of S.S.A.B, Tofilau Fiti Leung Wai, accepted the awards on behalf of her business family and told Samoa Observer that the honors gave her a moment of clarity to pause and appreciate the hard work and achievements of her staff over the years. 

“Sometimes you are doing so much and you can be so into what you’re doing but someone needs to say to you – Well done. I think God has been faithful, that’s why I think sometimes you need to sit back and celebrate what you have done and acknowledge the good work." 

“The good thing is we are not doing it ourselves – independent people are doing it and acknowledging our work, so for me I actually thank God and credit the staff,” she said.

Having won the awards for Samoan based Business of the year, Peoples Choice and the highly coveted SUGA Business Women of the Year Award, Tofilau said when she took to the stage to accept the awards, she felt an immense sense of gratitude and pride in her staff, who have proved the divine law that unity commands many blessings,

“Receiving the awards was very humbling and I was actually crying in my heart knowing that all these awards actually represent the hard work of S.S.A.B. We have worked so hard over the years and the awards is maybe a fair recognition and acknowledgement of my staff’s hard work. Because a lot of people don’t know how much work is spent doing all the promotions, there’s long hours and it’s a busy environment, people at S.S.A.B. don’t really rest.”

Tofilau expressed gratitude for organisations like the Samoa Business Network and encouraged more businesses in Samoa to support them, as well as foster a positive culture of recognising and encouraging excellence amongst their peers. 

“I also credit people like S.B.N. who do this work because without them and other organisations like them there is now acknowledgement of a work well done. No one really does that here in Samoa so I salute them for doing this because it’s not going to benefit them – it’s going to benefit businesses." 

“It occurred to me that it should be an inspiration to a lot of Samoan companies to be more involved with these organisations and to support and network and I said to S.B.N., don’t put S.S.A.B. in anymore categories next year. We would like to support their organisation and I want to give the opportunity to other businesses to develop and do better,” she added. 

So where to now for Tofilau and her expanding S.S.A.B. family?

Tofilau said: “I know that I am proud, it’s a humbling feeling and it makes me feel more driven because the stakes now are very high. We can’t go backwards and we have to now focus on bettering where we are at and improving our position in the industry.”

Below is a full list of winners for the S.B.N. Samoa Business Network Awards 2018:

Excellence in Small Business - WE Accounting & Business Services Ltd (Auckland, NZ)

Excellence in Construction & Trades - Levi Plumbing (Auckland, NZ)

Excellence in Hospitality - D’vine Banquets (Auckland, NZ & Melbourne, Australia)

Excellence in Professional Services - Home Graduates ECE Ltd (Auckland, NZ)

Excellence in Innovation – MYRIVR (Auckland, NZ)

Young Entrepreneur of the year (NZ) - Gustavia Lui - Staavias Ltd (NZ & Australia)

Start Up of the Year - ARBEZ Ltd (Tauranga, NZ)

Samoan Based Business of the year– SSAB - Samoa Stationery & Books (Samoa, American Samoa & Auckland, NZ)

SUGA Business Woman of the Year (International) - Tofilau Fiti Leung Wai – SSAB (Samoa)

People’s Choice Award – Favourite Business (International)

WINNER - SSAB (Samoa)

1st Runner up - Arilei Couture (Samoa)

2nd Runner Up - Staavias Ltd (NZ & Australia)

The event was live streamed via the Pacific Media Network 531PI page last Saturday night and televised on TV3 Samoa on Sunday. Highlight videos of the event can be seen on the SBN Facebook page and written profiles of the finalists can be viewed on the SBN Website. 

For more information on Samoa Business Network events and projects please visit their website https://www.samoabusinessnetwork.org or connect with them on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.  For Membership enquiries, please call Stephanie Solomona at E.M.D. on 22843 in Samoa or Laura Keil-Hall on 021659072 in New Zealand.