SA Tomato grows beautiful, hydroponic (you guessed it!) tomatoes which it supplies to wholesalers that serve major supermarkets.
Back in 2019, owner Oriana Petsios decided something needed to be done about the skyrocketing energy bills.
“Our energy bill for 2018-2019 was $65,000,” Oriana tells us. “It was a major cost for us.”
The business case for switching to solar was simple. “Wayne at Kozco made it all very clear, there was no question it was the right thing to do.”
The issue for SA Tomato was cash flow. “It would have been a huge pressure on the business to pay for solar upfront,” Oriana explains.
Project snapshot
Equipment
99.4KW Solar System
280 REC panels
4 Fronius inverters
The solution
Solar Installer Kozco introduced Oriana to Smart Ease payment plans, and the rest, as they say, is history!
“Signing up to a payment plan meant we could switch to solar straight away without impacting our capital,” says Oriana. “The process to sign up was just so quick and easy! It was a really seamless experience.”
The business win
SA Tomato saw the financial savings instantly.
“We signed up with Smart Ease in May 2019, which means we had solar for about half that year. Our energy bill dropped from $65,000 to $44,000 which is amazing,” Oriana tells us.
“Our first full year of solar we are on track for a $30,000 bill!”
After switching to solar, SA Tomato has more than halved the cost of their energy usage.
Would SA Tomato recommend a Smart Ease payment plan?
“Absolutely! The savings on our energy bill are more than our Smart Ease payments, so the solar system is paying for itself via the savings.” The results speak for themselves. “We’ve set ourselves up for huge savings in the long term. It just makes business sense.”