Cape Breton founded company signs lucrative contract
SYDNEY — A Canadian company with offices in Edwardsville and Winnipeg recently inked a $6.75 million contract to provide its products to a fabrication company in the United Arab Emirates.
Airesun Global Ltd. (Nova Scotia) and Airesun Global Manitoba Ltd. announced the contract with ASAF Fabrication LLC of Dubai last week. The agreement will establish the Canadian company’s processor/ extractor technology in the Middle East region to produce fully-biodegradable, noncaustic and non-toxic lubricants, degreasers and cleaners for heavy industry and manufacturing.
“This would actually be a smaller one,” Airesun Global Ltd. (Nova Scotia) chief operations officer Jacquelyn Thayer Scott said of the most recent contract signing.
“Most of the rest of them that we are currently in fairly advanced stages with are larger because … it’s really a B2B business. You wouldn’t, for example, go to Canadian Tire for our products, we are not business to consumer. We look for large business and heavy industry.”
Thomas O’Keefe, the founding CEO of Airesun Global, described ASAF as a fabricator of high-quality concrete moulds for various mobile machine and stationary plants.
Their processor/extractor unit serves industrial clients, several of which have expressed interest in the ‘green and safe’ Airesun products ASAF will use in their production, which could also sell under a ‘white label.’
Airesun’s heavy-industry products are made from seed oils, primarily canola and soy, and contain no petroleum distillates — all certified by third-party assessors as ‘foodsafe.’
They offer all the environmental benefits you could expect, O’Keefe noted in a press release, but also provide a safe, non-toxic environment in the workplace, while still performing as well, or better than, competing products at competitive prices and with no special handling.
When Airesun Global was incorporated in 2014, Scott said the heavy industry sector was identified as underserved when it came to all things green. The number of companies using large amounts of lubricants, cleaners and degreasers was obvious, but all the products they use are petroleum-based.
“We are first into what will be a new industry because we don’t have any petroleum distillates and we haven’t found anyone who has comparable products for heavy industry.”
Scott said all of the product inventions were done in Cape Breton and the original hope for the company was for all of its aspects to remain on the island.
An inability to import and export large volumes has prevented that from happening. Still, corporate headquarters remains on the island and one of the additives the company produces is still put together here and shipped to clients and partners.
There’s also a research lab in Cape Breton to bring the growing local employment number to about 25.
The 13,000 tonnes of canola/soy oil annually that will be required in this first contract with ASAF will come from Canada and be shipped out of Winnipeg by Airesun’s Manitoba subsidiary company.
Similar contracts are being completed with Airesun distributors in Europe and new partnerships and distributorships are under negotiation in the Middle East, Africa, and Canada.
Several business-to-business clients will be served directly by Airesun products made in their planned Winnipeg facility. Its location is currently under discussion with two possible sites in Winnipeg.
“We are first into what will be a new industry because we don’t have any petroleum distillates and we haven’t found anyone who has comparable products for heavy industry.”
Jacquelyn Thayer Scott Airesun Global Ltd. (Nova Scotia), COO