TMR SERVICE

COOL AND

ELECTRIFYING

Sustainable Business Magazine spoke to TMR Sales & Service Limited about working as an HVAC and electrical services company in Barbados. CEO Paula Pitt, Director of Engineering – A/C Systems Peter Thompson, and Director of Engineering – Power Systems, James Clarke gave their insight into a challenging but rewarding market.

TMR Sales & Service Limited (TMR) is a Barbadian company offering electrical, HVAC and Life Safety services throughout the country and the Caribbean. It works with industrial, commercial and residential clients although it works most frequently with the commercial sector. Across all of its work, TMR focuses on fully integrated solutions underlined by sustainable principles in order to remain a leader in the market.

The company hasn’t always looked the way it does today, though. It started out in the 1950s as a designer and supplier of electrification systems for factories of Barbados’ then-burgeoning sugar industry. It was then bought out and changed course, providing repair services for motors and transformers. TMR still bears the hallmark of this history as the company at that time was named Transformer and Motor Repairs Ltd.

TMR began resembling the company it is today in 1986, when the transformer repair company merged with an electrical company and acquired a line of air conditioning products in 1990. With the decline of Barbados’s sugar industry, the air conditioning and electrical services became the company’s primary focus. One final change of hands in 2007 to the current owners puts TMR in the leading market position it holds today.

CHALLENGING SUPPLY CHAINS

Commercial customers represent around two-thirds of TMR’s work. It offers products such as whole-building air conditioning systems, air ventilation installations, and even water chilling solutions. The company supplies these products, installs them, then offers ongoing maintenance services. It has a

team of over 70 technicians, project officers and engineering staff to make this happen.

Nonetheless, TMR faces the same market challenges that every other company does. Increasingly common supply chain difficulties that make the company’s work less predictable than normal.

“When materials are unavailable in the market, the contractual agreements we have with our customers will obviously be impacted,” says Paula Pitt, CEO of TMR Sales & Service Limited. “That is a problem for customer satisfaction, something we pride ourselves on. We have had to change the way we work with clients as a result, putting in place systems that reduce the impact that unreliable supply chains can have.”

Peter Thompson, the company’s Director of Engineer – A/C Systems, explains in more detail what measures are taken: “What we seek to do, particularly in contracting, is try to impress on our clients the need to give us early notice of what they require so we can try to procure it in time for the project. In other words, if a client has a project with a duration of six months, we try to impress on them that they shouldn’t wait until too late in the project to begin the procurement of materials and equipment.

“With sufficient notice we can get everything they require, and on schedule, but just-in-time procurement doesn’t really exist anymore. One thing that has been very successful is offering alternative options, until we are able to procure the items

“...CONTINUING TO BE INNOVATIVE AND WORKING

CLOSELY WITH ALL OF OUR PARTNERS AND CLIENTS.

WE’LL EVEN USE OURSELVES AS GUINEA PIGS FOR NEW SYSTEMS OR PRODUCTS TO ENSURE THEY PROVIDE

THE BEST RETURNS ON INVESTMENT BEFORE PASS-

ING THOSE ONTO OUR CLIENTS.”

specified for their project. For example, we can provide an alternative arrangement to get them going and then complete as per the original plan.”

TMR’s approach appears to work because its customers and partners remain committed to the company. With this base, it is looking to continue not just leading but innovating the Caribbean market.

INNOVATING THE MARKET

One of TMR’s greatest strengths is its international mindset. It brings in products from manufacturers across the world to ensure the Barbadian and Caribbean markets have world-leading HVAC systems available to them.

“We’ve always been innovative in terms of our offerings,” Mr. Thompson says. “Our relationships with established international manufacturers, both in air conditioning and the electrical arena, gives us access to new technologies from around the world. Out region has specific needs because of its climactic and geographic situation, and so some of the products manufactured internationally do not always meet the needs of this region’s climatic conditions. We seek the best options of products that meet the best fit for our customers.

He continues: “We seek to see what the best practices are in the industry internationally. We leverage our international manufacturers for their support in getting those technologies into our area. As an example, we were the first air conditioning supplier to bring inverter airconditioning units into Barbados. That was not the first innovation that we did but it was a notable one. We always leverage our international suppliers to get best practice technologies that exist internationally.”

This will be particularly important going forwards as the future presents more challenges. Existential instabilities such as increasingly extreme weather conditions, which the Caribbean is particularly vulnerable to, and unpredictable crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic affect not just TMR but its customers. “We’re planning towards these challenges so that we can pivot at any time to overcome challenges or grasp opportunities that arise out of these circumstances,” Ms. Pitt explains. The company’s close partnership with international suppliers will be key in this.

INTERNAL WORK

It’s not just externally that TMR is innovating. The company is transforming its internal processes to meet contemporary demands. The biggest of these is the introduction of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, an ongoing project that the company hopes will be completed soon.

“This ERP system will transform our customer response internally and externally,”

says Ms. Pitt. “It is changing and enhancing our main processes so they are much more effective and efficient. We will now be using electronic notifications and documentation to improve efficiency across the board. For example, internally, our people will no longer need to go through lots of hard copy documents for time, job and customer management. Instead, everything will be digitally stored and instantly searchable.”

The company has taken other smaller but no less important steps toward long-term sustainability too. It has installed motion-activated lighting systems throughout its premises to cut down on wasted energy. It has replaced equipment, fixtures and machinery with more energy efficient alternatives where possible. It has even started drafting electric vehicles into its fleet. All of these actions are aimed at lowering the company’s carbon footprint, which is essential not only for ecological and social reasons but because they make financial sense as well.

BEST PRACTICE FOR THE FUTURE

TMR is already the biggest company of its kind in Barbados and its brand continues growing throughout the Caribbean. Recent years have shown how challenging things can be, but the company is determined to build on its history of innovation to ensure it continues well into the future.

“Resources are at a premium - everything is at a premium today,” James Clarke, Director of Engineering – Power Systems at TMR, tells Sustainable Business Magazine. “Energy, real estate, salaries, wages, benefits – they’re all at a premium. Our plan to balance against that is to focus on whatever technologies and processes enable us to make the most efficient use of those resources. That means continuing to be innovative and working closely with all of our partners and clients. We’ll even use ourselves as guinea pigs for new systems or products to ensure they provide the best returns on investment before passing those onto our clients.”

HVAC and electricals will remain an important market will into the future, not least because of the Caribbean climate. Expanding into Life Safety products such as fire safety & suppression and security systems has proven very complementary. Together, despite today’s challenging supply chains, TMR Sales & Service Limited looks forward to a bright future. c