Forestals acquires 50 per cent of Bajada solar energy group

Forestals has acquired a 50 per cent stake in solar energy installations manufacturer Bajada Group as part of its continuing bid to diversify its business, Forestals managing director Tancred Tabone told The Sunday Times.

The deal means Bajada Group, which has been renamed Bajada New Energy, will benefit from Forestals’ back office expertise and retail footprint, and gain access to an additional customer base.

Mr Tabone said the buy-in involved “considerable investment”.

“We believe diversification is crucial to the growth of Forestals,” Mr Tabone explained. “Diversification means going into new business, and teaming up with those which are already established and which, in our view, are the leading players in their particular industry.

“Bajada are leaders in what we see as a growth industry. Under this agreement, Bajada will be able to focus on its core competence.”

Mr Tabone said Forestals was keen to tap the green energy market given its growth potential, particularly as consumers became increasingly convinced solar energy improved living standards and helped maintain utility costs at sustainable levels.

Bajada New Energy, which has opened a showroom in Mrieħel, made the headlines in February last year when it installed an €80,000 photovoltaic system as it bid to become Malta’s first totally solar-powered business.

The company is headed by Mark Bajada, who started out 21 years ago when few in Malta believed in alternative energy concepts. Bajada went on to be the first firm to import photovoltaic panels from France.

The group has a staff of around 30 and represents more than 15 world-leading renewable energy and solar air-conditioning brands locally. It also manufactures solar water heaters for local distribution and exports to several markets across Europe.

Internationally quality certified, Bajada Group has installed PV systems, wind turbines, solar water heaters and air-conditioning units in over 12,000 homes and businesses.

Mr Tabone was full of praise for Mr Bajada’s passion for alternative energy and said he was impressed by his intelligence and the chemistry the two struck.

“I have no aspiration to take over the management of Bajada New Energy,” Mr Tabone added.

“Mr Bajada is the managing director and he will continue to run the business. I will attend weekly board meetings. Forestals has invested into what Mr Bajada has built so well.”

The investment in Bajada New Energy follows hot on the heels of Forestals’ similar deal with IT professional Keith Fearne’s KLF, the company recently renamed ICT Solutions.

Mr Tabone said Forestals had “many other exciting projects” planned.

One is a joint project with Vassallo Group over the development of Forestals’ former retail site on The Strand. Applications for planning permission have been filed to convert the site into seafront luxury apartments and a small collection of boutiques at street level in a project called ‘One One O’.

There will be three floors of parking above ground at the rear of the development. Mr Tabone said the project will be completed within 24 to 30 months of permits being granted.

Forestals, now run by its fourth generation, is being restructured as it looks to grow and diversify. Two chief executive officers are to be appointed soon to run the company’s retail and commercial arms.

Mr Tabone said he considered Forestals to be a professional business, rather than a family firm, and a defined succession plan is in place to ensure the company had a clearly mapped future.

“The company is not here for the family,” he pointed out. “We have a charter which states that not all family members will be ‘naturally’ employed by the company, and that family members who do join Forestals have to have completed their university studies.

“We are even improving on our succession plan. My sons, for instance, will report to the new non-family CEOs.”

Members of the upcoming generation had the potential to be directors and shareholders, but not necessarily executives until they proved themselves to be up to the job. Mr Tabone said he himself had not been “a natural executive” and had to work his way up the ranks.

Mr Tabone and some close advisers are carefully drawing up the plans for Forestals’ future. He believes Malta offered several untapped avenues of business, adding that he did not have a particularly strong desire to venture abroad.

Mr Tabone, who has just been named president of the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, said that like many others in business he too had learned from past commercial failures but was keen to pursue “interesting and exciting” ventures.