BICO Limited unaffected by power outages

As the nation of Barbados battled power outages across the island and a lack of water in some parishes for a second day running, the management of local ice-cream manufacturing company BICO Limited experienced no fear and certainly no chills, in ensuring that it was business as usual at the Harbour Industrial Park, St. Michael plant.

BICO’s Executive Chairman, Edwin Thirlwell told the Barbados Advocate that the company was “firing on all cylinders” thanks to its two diesel generators and was standing by in the case of emergency, to provide its cold storage facilities to those in need across the island.

The Harbour Cold Store facility at BICO is HACCP compliant, enabling the cargo of international companies, together with regional importers, to be handled by acclaimed food safety standards, which are set in place. The Harbour Cold Store is usually available to farmers, fishermen, poultry and other meat producers, as well as persons in the business community in general, who need to store fresh produce in a chilled or frozen environment, until it is required for sale.

“We are firing on all cylinders, for anybody who needs help. We are storing everything for people that haven’t got any power. We are the emergency (back-up) when things are bad. We are here. We are in full action,” Thirlwell told this newspaper.

“We have got loads of storage facilities. We have got chilled, we’ve got frozen, we take things in an emergency, we are here and our generators are working 24/7,” he stressed.

“We have everyone’s food down here. We have all the chicken, all the beef. If we go down, it’s going to be a disaster for everyone, because there will be no food,” he further remarked.

He however stressed that that would be unlikely, as the company was working its two diesel generators, to ensure there were “no worries at all”. The capacity of the smaller diesel generator is 850 kilowatts, whilst the bigger one offers 1000 kilowatts.

Agreeing that the island-wide power outage over the last two days may indeed be a wake-up call for persons in the business community and the wider public in general to seek to invest in alternative sources of energy, he suggested that purchasing a generator to provide power in cases of emergency, may be a good place to start.

“The fact is that we have got two generators. People who thought they didn’t want a generator or need one, will find that they do. (At present), we want to sell one of the smaller ones, because we need to buy a bigger one, once we open the (new ice-cream) factory (next year). So in actual fact, we will have a diesel generator for sale, for anyone who is in need,” he meanwhile stated.