West Indies Petroleum Limited, a Kingston-based integrated energy company, has spun off its retail and commercial fuel distribution business into a new independent company, WIP Energy Limited. This move is part of an aggressive growth strategy aimed at increasing market share.

The restructured business will see West Indies Petroleum, which began as a bunkering company in 2013, focusing on bunkering and regional sales. Meanwhile, its newly created subsidiary, WIP Energy, will take over the domestic fuel distribution business, supplying petrol stations and commercial customers. WIP Energy, the company said, will build on its parent company’s existing relationships, supplying fuel to around 80 per cent of Jamaica’s independent petrol stations — a network that accounts for nearly a third of the island’s total fuel sales.

“This strategic restructuring will allow WIP Energy to pursue a more focused growth strategy in the retail and commercial fuel distribution sector,” Charles Chambers, CEO of West Indies Petroleum, said.

“By creating a stand-alone entity, we’re enabling more efficient capital allocation and operational autonomy, which are crucial for capturing the significant growth opportunities we see in the Jamaican market,” he added.

Chambers, who told the Jamaica Observer that the restructuring is something the company has been working on for the better part of a year, said it is aimed at adding profitability to the company’s growth over the last few years.

“Our focus for many years was really been about growth, and now we are transitioning, and trying to do so quite aggressively towards a focus on profitability, and we think that it makes sense that we would right size each of those entities, with, at the top of the entity, the right board of directors, because corporate governance, we think, is fundamental, and the key piece of that equation to get to profitability,” Chambers pointed out.

He didn’t share the company’s finances pointing out that it is still a private company, though he did not rule out taking it public in the future.

The board of WIP Energy will be chaired by Patrick Hylton, former CEO of NCB Financial Group, who will be joined by his former deputy CEO, Dennis Cohen, as independent directors. Other independent directors include Winston Watson, a former group general manager at Petrojam Limited, and attorney-at-law Kathryn Lewis Green. Rounding out the board are industry veteran Gordon Shirley, as well as WIP executives Danville Walker, senior vice-president; Tarik Felix, head of commercial operations; and Charles Chambers. Wayne Fraser, WIP’s head of operations, has been appointed as general manager of WIP Energy.

“We could not have done better in terms of finding the cadre of people at the top of the company to provide leadership at the board level to bring that entity to realise its full potential from a profitability and efficiency standpoint,” Chambers said of the appointments.

“Patrick Hylton, who is the chairman, brings a tremendous amount of gravitas with him,” Chambers continued, citing the job he did in turning around NCB and making it the largest and most profitable bank in Jamaica prior to his departure last year.

“He is someone that is extremely focused on the job at hand, setting incredible targets and making sure that he achieves them… I feel like him deciding to come on as chairman of the company and putting his name on it is a ringing endorsement of our vision for the company. Dennis also joining, we think is also a huge win for us. Dennis will also actually head up a couple of our board committees. Winston Watson has been an expert in the petroleum space… and he knows everything that there is to know about the petroleum space in Jamaica and beyond, and Kathryn Lewis Green, as an attorney, sits on a number of different public companies, as well, and adds real value to the board.”

According to Chambers, 2025 is poised to be a breakout year for WIP Energy. He said based on the company’s current momentum and the progress being made, he is confident that WIP Energy will exceed its budgeted expectations for 2025, building on the foundation established in 2024.

“At the moment, we distribute about 30 per cent of the fuel to the gas station market. Our vision is that we will grow that business in Jamaica and do it in a way that creates tremendous profitability for the shareholders of the company and that we will continue to explore opportunities for growth and profitability both in Jamaica and regionally and seize opportunities that come to us,” he told BusinessWeek.

Turning to the parent company and its subsidiary, Chambers outlined: “We have struck partnerships with a number of different companies that we think will make each one of those entities stronger, healthier, much more profitable, much better run and in the long term, all of those things together in West Indies Petroleum, will make the entire company, I think, a regional behemoth in the next few years, but we are very, very excited about the future of this company.”