Business View Caribbean | November 2019

41 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN NOVEMBER 2019 ASHRAE American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers IIAR International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration RETA Refrigeration Engineer & Technicians Association JARVA Jamaica Air Conditioning, Refrigeration & Ventilation Association PSOJ Private Sector Organization of Jamaica JCC Jamaica Chamber of Commerce GEDDES REFR IGERAT ION LTD . includes 100 percent of the maintenance for Flow Jamaica telecommunications, all National Commercial Banks, and most other major banks, as well as several government locations and, of course, the Red Stripe Beer facilities. Lafayette notes, “We work closely with the developers, the architects, and engineers in the construction industry. There are three other large players in our sector, but most of them are more sales-oriented than us. We are maintenance, sales, and deep engineering. We do radio and newspaper marketing, but a lot of our business comes from the mechanical and electrical engineers who know of our company and know of the standard and quality of work we do. We’ve been around for many years, so everybody knows of us, but we have to advertise just to stay relevant because there are a lot of new players coming into the market.” Climate change is affecting the country of Jamaica in a very real way with more rain and increasing temperatures. If there is a silver lining, the rise in temperatures is good for Geddes Refrigeration. Lafayette admits, “I think we are in the right business. Some schools and churches here don’t have air conditioning, so with this kind of climate change, those things must happen, and that means more business. The air conditioning technology is rapidly changing. Five, six years ago it was more mechanical, it’s now more electronic and becoming more energy-efficient and cost saving. In Jamaica, the cost of electricity is so expensive – 38 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour. So if we can find ways of bringing down the cost of equipment, while saving energy, that’s what we want. And we’ve been doing pretty good in that area.” Looking ahead, Geddes Refrigeration wants to add to their sales office in the western part of the island, in another four to five months. And Estech has recently moved into solar, and plans to do a lot more investment into alternative energy projects. Continuing to champion the skilled labor cause, as a follow up to Geddes Advanced Technical Training, Lafayette has his sights on creating a Foundation “where we actually partner with a university to take on that center for advanced training of air conditioning and refrigeration to ensure we have GEDDES REFRIGERATION IS A PROUD MEMBER OF: