Wastewater firms merge

The Barbados-based water maintenance and management company Ecohesion has been taken over by a Canada-based firm in a deal that officials say will create tremendous opportunity for Barbados in the area of wastewater management.

Officials declined to disclose the value of the merger with sustainable infrastructure development specialist firm Integrated Sustainability, but noted that it was “major” and had been concluded after several years of discussion.

“I think the union of our two companies was very natural,” said Nick St-Georges, Vice President of International operations at Integrated Sustainability.

He indicated that the company was involved in a number of water sustainability projects across the region.

“We are naturally going to be looking for bigger opportunities. We have partnerships that can complement us and provide financing and construction support.

“With that in mind, with our regional headquarters here in Barbados, we are going after big projects and our hopes are to provide good quality, high-technical opportunities for hiring people in Barbados. There will be opportunities across the Caribbean as well,” he added.

In addition to three offices in Canada, the 12-year-old Integrated Sustainability also has operations in Texas in the United States and has been operating in Barbados for just over four years.

Ecohesion, which has been in operation since 2013, has operations in Bermuda and Guyana. The employment between the two companies is just over 130, including both full-time and part-time workers. In Barbados, the company has done several water treatment and reclamation projects including water treatment for a beverage and bottling company and a custom-engineered water reclamation project for a West Coast villa.

St-Georges said in addition to employment opportunities locally and regionally, there will be scope for career advancement and mentorship.

He said the merger also signalled the continued building of relationship between Canada and Barbados, as both countries work to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Stuart Torr, President and CEO of Integrated Sustainability, said the coming together of both companies will allow them to build on their strengths.

He said the merger allows for the company to be in a better position to help solve some of the biggest challenges facing Barbados and the region in the area of water management.

“We are going to be able to export that to other parts of the world. Typically, when you bring an international company together with a smaller one you think the international company solved everything, but we haven’t. This group brings a unique expertise and perspective that we are going to be able to export into our broader offering in North America and we are going to create opportunities for their staff to help us support those projects internationally as well,” said Torr.

“It is a major investment. We have believed in the investment in the Caribbean for a while. We think this is a wonderful place to tackle some of the most significant challenges globally, and what we are looking at here is a combined team that enables us to do it forcibly and more poetically,” he said.

“We have a very unique positioning now and I think it is going to benefit, not only, Barbados but the other islands. We think our service can broaden and we are very excited about that,” he added.

Meanwhile, André Quesnel of the Ecohesion Group, said that company in the past has worked with the University of the West Indies to get needed talent, and that would continue.

“What is amazing about this partnership is that it has opened up the career growth for Barbadians and for Caribbean nationals to grow and work on projects internationally and have mentors . . . It is removing that ceiling. So that is what we are really excited about,” said Quesnel.

He also underscored the value of the merger, saying it created an opportunity for Barbados to become “a leader in water sustainability, and to become a hub for the region to export services and train individuals in the water sector”.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb