FOLLOWING Dr Dhiru Tanna’s retirement as executive chairman on April 30, Blue Power Group Limited will be adding a senior executive to its board in short order.

This was announced by Major Noel Dawes at the company’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM) at the Serengeti, Hope Zoo on Monday. Major Noel Dawes is the former managing director for the Blue Power Group and is the managing director for Lumber Depot Limited. Dawes chaired the meeting in the absence of the newly appointed chairman, Jeffrey Hall, who ascended to the role on Sunday.

“As it stands right now, there’s no senior executive outside myself that sits on the board. I am a director and not an executive in terms of Blue Power Group Limited. I am with the other company (Lumber Depot). What we know for sure at this time is that we want to appoint at least one executive from Blue Power to the board level. With Dr Tanna remaining on the board, that does not allow us to have that room for that vacancy. Hence, the reason why we decided to increase the number of directors on the board,” said Dawes at the EGM.

Blue Power’s board is at the maximum allowed by the company’s articles of incorporation which is eight. With shareholders unanimously voting in favour to amend article 76 and allow for 10 directors, the room has been created for a senior executive to be appointed. The current senior managers at Blue Power include General Manager Lisa Kong-Lee, Commercial Manager Vishwanauth Tolan and Chief Accountant Andrienne Jones.

“With Dr Tanna’s decision to step down as chairman, our goal is to allow for a senior executive to join the board and to allow for succession planning,” Hall explained to the Jamaica Observer.

Blue Power’s board includes Tanna, Hall, Dawes, Kenneth Benjamin, Felice Campbell, Catherine Goodall, Peter Millingen and Laura Tanna,

When asked why the board limit wasn’t increased to a greater number, Dawes said, “When the board considered it in terms of the size of the company at this time and diversity of persons on the board, we thought that an additional two persons would fulfil the requirements that we now have.”

Blue Power has been increasing its domestic sales in order to make up for the deficit that exists from its inability to export to the rest of the Caribbean due to the 40 per cent tariff which would be applied to its products. Dawes stated that the legal case with Dominica Coconut Product Successors Limited is ongoing and there’d be no further comment. He did add that the company was looking to expand its third party manufacturing agreements to increase its revenue.

“We’re continuing to try, develop, build and grow out the business. In terms of co-manufacturing, that has increased significantly in the last financial year. We were doing it on a partial basis before and now we’re doing it exclusively 100 per cent for them in what is being made. We now recognise that we need to ramp up production locally to augment for what we have lost and fill that void which was from the Caribbean,” Dawes told shareholders.

Kong-Lee explained that the sale and purchase agreement of the property adjacent to it wasn’t yet complete at the end of the financial year. She added that an agreement was in place and should be completed in the new financial year. Blue Power’s financial year ended on April 30 and its results are now subject to audit.

Blue Power’s revenue is down 20 per cent to $346.52 million for the nine months up to January 31. Its net profit is up 146 per cent to $204.34 million due to the $145.64-million gain on the disposal of the Papine property to Lumber Depot. The company’s total assets were $1.60 billion, with shareholders’ equity of $1.49 billion at the end of January. The stock price closed Monday at $3.64, which leaves it up 15 per cent year to date with a market capitalisation of $2.06 billion.