Tropical Battery adds two more subsidiaries
Published:Wednesday | February 16, 2022 | 12:09 AM
Energy storage company Tropical Battery has formed two subsidiaries, Tropical Energy Limited and Tropical Finance Limited, just months after launching Tropical Mobility, an electric mobility solutions company created with hopes of deepening Jamaica’s electric mobility market.
The auto battery supplier is also an equal partner in a start-up named ENRVATE Limited.
Oliver Hill, a former consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank, has taken the lead role in Tropical Mobility’s operation, but up to press time, Tropical Battery Company was yet to say who will head the other two new companies and whether they are operational.
“It’s still early days,” Deputy Managing Director Daniel Melville told the Financial Gleaner.
The launch of the new companies sees Tropical Battery taking a step further in the diversification of its products and services, through vertical integration.
Its newest subsidiary, Tropical Energy, will target the renewable energy market; while Tropical Finance aims to provide financial products and services that help expand access to electric vehicles and renewable energy systems, the company said.
Tropical Battery also wants to become a primary supplier of solar batteries for ENRVATE, the joint-venture company it formed last year with air conditioning distribution company CAC 2000, which will offer energy-saving solutions to customers in Jamaica and the Caribbean.
Tropical Battery does not currently retail lithium-ion batteries, but is thinking of recycling them.
So far, Tropical Battery has struck a partnership with one of North America’s largest lithium-ion battery recyclers and has retained a consultant to prepare the company to meet R2V3 Responsible Recycling standards.
“R2V3 certification will provide assurance to Tropical Battery’s upstream and downstream partners that the company is handling lithium batteries in an environmentally responsible manner and improve the company’s growth prospects in the recycling segment,” Melville said, in the company’s first quarter financial report for the October-December 2021 period.
The company also needs to meet ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 environmental and health and safety standards.
The recycling initiative, which has been deemed as both financially viable and environmentally responsible for Tropical Battery, extends the scope of the company’s existing recycling activities beyond lead acid automotive batteries.
Tropical Battery posted a record $56 million in profit for its December quarter on revenues of $661 million, which is also the highest in the company’s 70-year history. Earnings per share doubled from two cents to four cents.
“We are grateful for a record quarter on many fronts: highest revenue, highest operating profit and the highest net income after tax ever recorded in a single quarter,” Melville said.