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Durrant Pate/Contributor

Jamaican listed air conditioning and energy solutions company, CAC 2000 Limited has seen an uptick in business since the start of the year, with even more business to come in the months ahead.

Chief Executive Officer Gia Abraham hails the continued uptick in service and transactional businesses, noting that “the construction market is very active, and at present CAC has quoted on approximately J$1.5 billion in new jobs, for which the company is still awaiting decision. Most jobs won now would however fall in year-end October 2023 and beyond”.

Trade receivables were minimally greater than last year but without an overall material impact over the same period last year. However, the net result showed an overall decrease over year-to-date profit before tax compared with the prior year.

Profits for the nine months ended July 2022 saw profit dropping to minus J$19.9 million coming from a profit of J$7.8 million during the comparable period in 2021. “Supply chain issues continue to present a challenge with continued delays, and continued price increases due to the changes in the interest rates in the US, as well as manufacturers trying to catch up on the backlog created during Coved along with the global microchip issue (as this is a necessary component in all modern AC units), Abraham explains.

Shareholder’s net equity slightly up

CAC is pleased to confirm that based on present results the shareholders’ equity is up by 1.2 per cent or J$4,639,426 as compared to the same period last year. Regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the business, Abraham stated: “COVID, whilst seemingly ‘gone’, it is still having a major impact on our business especially as it relates to cash flow, as many of our receivables go through a rigorous approval process and in this quarter, we are still experiencing delays in payments.”

As for CAC’s subsidiary company, EnRvate, it has applied and is awaiting to access a loan facility approval to be able to commence some of its initial projects, which includes CAC and Tropical Battery solar system upgrades to begin booking revenues and profits. In the meantime, EnRvate as expected has been quoting and winning Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) jobs that have been and will be booked in CAC.

The management reports that “CAC continues to look at innovative ways to address the supply chain/inventory and cash challenges, with the increased competition in the project market, and remaining front and centre in the service and transactional Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) market. We continue to actively produce quotations, close projects, and work with our key suppliers to ensure competitive pricing.

Turning to the CAC 2000 Foundation, it has been actively engaged in driving the Service Technician Training Programme and continues to work closely with Local Partner Development FHI 360 (formerly Family Health International which came to its fruition in July2022.

The foundation successfully graduated 15 participants, of which nine are currently working on projects, with the other six working independently after being outfitted with tools etc. as part of their successful completion of the programme.