Chairman’s Report 2016

Following an outstanding performance in growth and profitability in 2015, 2016 has continued our story of double digit growth. Our focus on developing our export markets have paid dividends with over 50% of our revenue now coming from export sales. This is a tremendous achievement and brings much needed $USD to Barbados.

In 2015, our St.Lucia operation was launched under the leadership of our Country Manager, Derniea Serieux-Ellis, who is growing this new market for us very effectively. In the face of international competition, we won the LED retrofit contract for the BuckEye Oil terminal in St Lucia to replace all existing lighting. This retrofit included, but was not limited to, street lighting across this 700 acre site. This was an important win for us in our launch year in St Lucia and further reinforces our mantra of “made in the Caribbean for the Caribbean”.

Our partnership with LED Roadway Lighting Ltd (LRL) in Canada, continues to develop positively and we won several large contracts to supply energy saving LED street lights to Grand Bahamas, Grenada and St Vincent. In addition, we supplied over 1,600 LED street lights to Barbados Light & Power Ltd. This part of our business is growing rapidly and will continue to do so over the foreseeable future as more governments and utility companies see the benefits of LED street lights. These benefits include greatly improved lighting quality, lower energy costs of at least 60% and lower maintenance costs with our 20 year limited warranty. Currently, negotiations are in train with a number of governments and utility companies across the region.

Our local market has performed steadily and we were awarded a further contract to manufacture and supply A19, 7watt light bulbs for the Division of Energy, Smart Fund “LED bulb giveaway”. To date circa 60,000 LED light bulbs, manufactured in Barbados have been given to households free of charge on the basis of 5 per household. This project cost $1M BDS and will save households $2M per year for the next 10 years at average use. This gives a 20:1 ROI which is an incredibly effective way to encourage energy efficiency.

Our company has grown significantly in 2016 despite the macro and micro economic conditions in Barbados and the region in general. None of this would be possible without a dedicated and passionate team I want to acknowledge and thank our team who continue to do the incredible every day!

Jim Reid

Founder & Chairman