Lean Energy Solutions takes top 100 Kenyan SME Award

Lean Energy Solutions was announced the winner of a Business Daily and KPMG survey listing Kenya’s fastest-growing medium-sized companies. The survey covered firms with sales of between Sh70 million and Sh1 billion and saw manufacturers dominate the top ten list of the 100 firms profiled.

Lean Energy took the top spot, thanks in great part to green technology that has seen it win major clients, sparking a change in established manufacturing processes. The company uses remnants of sugarcane, also known as bargasse, to power boilers in factories producing fast moving consumer goods.

The bargasse is compacted to create flammable blocks or briquettes that cost less and have a lower carbon footprint compared to diesel-fired boilers. The boilers generate steam used in manufacturing processes.
This technology is much cheaper compared to fossil fuels,” said Dinesh Tembhekar, the managing director of Lean Energy. “It also creates more jobs and emits less greenhouse gases. We are therefore offering triple benefits with this solution,” he said.

The company has been hired by Coca-Cola and Spin Knit Dairy Limited, among other large manufacturers, to instal boilers compatible with its technology. Lean Energy works on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) model where it instals such boilers and earns fees for a predetermined period before the equipment reverts to the client.

According to Mr Tembhekar the company has been growing by 35 per cent year-on-year, underlining the rising uptake of green technology by manufacturers keen on cutting costs. Industrialists have cited high energy costs as one of their major challenges, observing that it thins their margins and blunts their competitive edge compared to low-cost producers in Asia, South Africa, and Egypt.

Lean Energy was also named the best company in the professional services category of the Top 100 Survey, which was first launched in Kenya in 2008 to recognise the companies that employ over 70 per cent of working Kenyans.

Founded in 2007 by Dinesh Tembhekar, a former AMSCO Manager, Lean Energy Solutions has been an AMSCO client since 2010.