How a 67% reduction in annual energy bills boosted profits for this established food distributor.
How a 67% reduction in annual energy bills boosted profits for this established food distributor.
[ 4-minute read ]
With Spring now regularly fueling our days with warmth and sunshine, there is a new sense of energy, enthusiasm and positivity filling the air – a welcomed change for not only households, but for businesses in particular.
The Reserve Bank recently announced that Western Australia has been the nation’s weakest-performing economy for more than a year, and if you share an honest chat with a local business owner, they will no doubt enlighten you of their struggles during this turbulent period.
Whilst there are signs of a positive turn in the market bringing renewed hopes of business confidence, investment and purchasing power, it has never been more important to consider your bottom line expenses in order to drive profitability.
This is where a switch to renewable energy can provide a viable solution to significantly reducing your operational expenses, leading to a simple analogy of “savings equal revenue” – and that’s exactly what occurred when wholesale giant, Staley Food and Packaging recently embraced the wonderful world of renewable energy.
As a family owned food service distributor servicing WA’s South West for the last 30 years, Staley have a philosophy of sourcing the right product, providing it at a competitive price, and delivering it on time in the best condition possible.
After Gary Dunn introduced EGP’s renewable energy solutions to the food packaging giant, he also handled the install of a massive 100kW solar farm made up of 370 separate solar panels, immediately helping the Davenport site on its way to a 67% reduction in annual energy usage with 132 less tonnes of carbon emissions projected each year. With a 3-year payment plan, allowing the company to make payments towards their newly installed solar farm, Staley would soon be producing their own energy, leading to further savings and sustainability.
Pictured: John Staley and wife Elizabeth with EGP’s Director, Darren Harry
Our General Manager, Matthew Diefenbach and sales gun, Karl Williams both sat down with Staley’s General Manager, Keith Patterson, to reflect on the changes since the switch to renewable energy. He describes the moment the EGP Energy Solutions consultant first explained the numbers;
“At no point in the whole conversation were Staley going to be worse off – therefore it became a no-brainer. We said to ourselves, this is not going to cost the business any money, so we thought what are we waiting for?”
Whilst the food and packaging giant sources both local and international products from various markets, it was essential to ensure the installation had minimal impact on their day-to-day operations. When asked to comment on the process itself, Mr Patterson seemed pleased with how everything went, adding;
“The whole process has been as smooth as you could imagine. They didn’t interfere with the business and we only had 1 hour where we shut the power off, which was a pretty minimal inconvenience for what we were going to achieve out of it”.
Given the market conditions throughout Western Australia, and indeed some international markets, the struggle for profitability has been a challenge, even for a company of Staley’s stature. After considering the switch to renewable energy in this unsettled market, Keith explained that the move to solar was considered low risk as the numbers simply just added up.
Staley Food & Packaging are projected to save 67% on their annual energy bills
“In the environment we’re in at the moment, where things are so tight, every dollar is important, which is why solar comes into the equation.”
As the General Manager of the company, Keith has seen numerous changes throughout the years to both the industry, as well as his internal operations. He has always focused on ‘efficiency’ which enables the company to offer competitive prices to its loyal customers, whilst maintaining integral product quality. It is this efficiency that solidifies Staley’s positive reputation within the market, and these same efficiencies which create a challenge of profitability.
“The costs to run a business have dramatically increased over the last 2 years, but the turnover hasn’t. In some cases your percentage of gross profits have dropped.
If you can save a considerable amount of money on some of these expenses, it becomes critical to your business to maintain that profitability.”
Whilst there is much discussion around the positive results of residential solar installations, commercial installs are less common within WA market, meaning there was still an element of uncertainty when Patterson made the decision to move into renewable energy. However, it was clear the switch had immediately paid off, with Staley now on a path towards further savings once their system was fully paid for and owned by the company.
370 panels now generating 100kW of renewable energy as Staley’s solar farm
“We got our first energy bill and it was halved. For this time of year, that’s a pretty good result. I can’t see how there wouldn’t be a business that couldn’t benefit from getting on the solar stream.
When it comes to running a business, it’s easy to focus solely on the financial benefits of installing your own energy farm, however there are significant environmental benefits which also come from clean renewable energy, particularly in a commercial sense. Post-installation, Staley are now projected to reduce their carbon footprint by 132 tonnes over the next year alone, which left the General Manager with a sense of company pride.
“With business, the saving of dollars is everything, but when you’ve got that combined with doing the right thing by the environment, it’s a win/win”.
He continued;
“Knowing that we reduced our carbon footprint was an added bonus. It makes you feel better about what you’ve done because you are having a positive impact on the environment.”
After spending some time with Keith and the team on-site, it was clear that the solar installation had an immediate positive impact, helping the business turn savings into profits, which is why we truly love what we do. We look forward to watching this space as the company continues to improve its efficiencies and pave the way as the leader in food packaging and distribution throughout the South West of our beautiful state.
The food service giant is expected to emit 132 less tonnes of carbon this year