Company Announcement - Kevin Hustler, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber today handed over a commemorative 25 year plaque to Microcare Directors, Jimmy Catt and Nelius De Lange in honour of the 25 years of local Solar Component Manufacturing in Nelson Mandela Bay. Hustler: “The quality of workmanship is outstanding and we can be very proud of the skills we have and the products made in our city. There is no doubt that Microcare runs a world class operation and we need to get behind our local manufacturers who are doing an excellent job. 25 years is a remarkable achievement for any company and Microcare needs to be recognized for the role they are playing in putting our city in the international market.”
Microcare was founded in August of 1990 to manufacture Inverters for the growing solar market which was to come. This company was the first in South Africa to venture into the renewable energy solar components manufacturing space during a time when energy was cheap and clean energy was not often a priority. For Jimmy Catt and his team the drive was to pioneer this unknown manufacturing sector using local people to build proudly South African products.
Now 25 years later this Eastern Cape manufacturer is the only company in South Africa to design, develop, and manufacture Solar Charge Regulators, Pure Sine Wave Bi-Directional Inverters, Grid Tied Inverters, and unique products such as the Grid Tied Limiter and Battery Monitor. Today Microcare has 70 local staff manufacturing over 50 different products by hand. Despite imported products flooding the South African market, Microcare has quietly gone about manufacturing these Renewable Energy products at the Neave Industrial plant for over 250 nationwide distributors while exporting into Africa, Europe, Asia and Australasia. Catt: “With so many competing products coming into the country from around the world we have stuck to our belief that we have the resources and skills to manufacture quality solar components for the South African and global market. We have seen jobs being created and money spent of solar energy stay in our country. Thank you for your local and loyal support throughout the years.”
While Port Elizabeth has often been referred to as the emerging renewable energy capital of South Africa one thing is for certain, Renewable Energy manufacturing has been going strong in this region for 25 years and Microcare plans to continue waving the local flag for a long time to come!