ATLANTA, GA--(Marketwired - Oct 19, 2015) - MissionIR today announces the online availability of its interview with Oakridge Global Energy Solutions, Inc. (OTCQB: OGES) Chief Executive Officer Steve Barber.
The full audio interview is available at http://OGES.MissionIR.com/interview.html
Oakridge is focused on the design, development and manufacture of American-made high-quality cells, batteries and power systems. Its innovative product line includes multiple lithium-ion technologies and form factors optimized to address four high-demand target markets: stationary power storage units and power back up systems for homes and living space applications; motive applications such as electric vehicles (especially including golf cars, local area electric vehicles, and fleet vehicles); remote control sector batteries for civilian and military applications (for drones and unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned underwater vehicles, and unmanned cars and boats); as well as starter motor batteries for motorcycles, jet-skis, snow mobiles, and boats, together with specialty applications such as military, aerospace, marine, medical and telecom backup.
Mr. Barber begins the MissionIR interview by describing Oakridge's business model and recent visit from Florida Governor Rick Scott to celebrate the opening of its new headquarters.
"[Governor Scott] was here to not only himself personally open our new headquarters, which is our expansion facility because we outgrew our initial starting point from two years ago, but he also announced a... $33 million incentive package from a combination of the state of Florida, the local county [Brevard County]... and the city of Palm Bay, which is where our corporate headquarters is. I think that really got everybody's attention quite nicely," says Steve Barber.
Mr. Barber then briefly details Oakridge's ongoing restructuring initiatives and how the Company is now aptly positioned to expand its market reach in the global lithium-ion batteries market, which is expected to reach approximately $70 billion by 2020.
In addition to his executive position with Oakridge, Mr. Barber is the chairman and chief investment officer of a private office family fund, Precept, which searches out "the next great new thing" in which to invest. It was through Precept that Barber noticed the incredible growth of the lithium-ion battery space, along with the need for American-made and commercialized batteries of superior quality.
In 2014, Precept took control of Oakridge, which at the time was a shell company, polished it up, and with a new management team decided how to best utilize the patents for lithium ion battery technology it holds.
"Through our family fund we searched around and about two years ago we found Oakridge and decided to invest in and take control of it," Barber explains. "And that's another good thing for investors, because as a family fund we've got our two parallel funds... and we own almost 90% of the company, which means that we can do the restructure that we needed to do successfully, reposition the company how it needs to be repositioned, inject fresh capital -- which has been, in total, around about $40 million. We really put our money where our mouth is with this one. And of course, we're long-term holders... we aren't going anywhere anytime soon."
Today, Oakridge is the only pure-play "Made in the USA" manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries available for purchase. The company's battery products are designed for golf cars, jet skis, motorcycles, boats, home energy storage and many more exciting applications.
"Batteries are boring unless you wrap them in cool stuff, so we make batteries for cool stuff," explains Mr. Barber.
The CEO also names and explains the qualifications of key members of its leadership team and recent corporate milestones before concluding with an overview of what's to come in the near future.
"It's extremely important to us, in creating a successful company, that you have the right team. That's really what we've spent the last 18 months to two years doing. We restructured the company completely, cleaned it up... We've filed for NASDAQ -- which the company expects to achieve when the share price climbs to $4. The company is also gearing up to order new equipment to expand its existing production to become fully operational by spring of 2016, positioning the company among the top 10 battery manufacturers by capacity in the world," he says.
About Oakridge Global Energy Solutions, Inc.
Oakridge Global Energy Solutions is an integrated, "made in USA" energy storage solutions company that uses state-of-the-art technology to focus on making and developing advanced, high-quality cells, batteries and power systems. The company's solutions are used in consumer, government, industrial and military applications.
Oakridge's strategy is to simultaneously deliver innovation and build an industrial scale platform that includes multiple lithium-ion technologies and form factors that are optimized to address four target markets:
- The Freedom Series for stationary and grid storage, telecom backup and living space power for RVs, trucks and boats;
- The Pro Series for motive applications including fleet vehicles, Local Area Electric Vehicles and Hybrid Electric Vehicles, especially golf cars;
- The Patriot Series for specialty applications including Remote Control Civilian and Military Aerial, Land and Underwater vehicles, including the hobby market;
- The Liberty Series for starter motor batteries for motorcycles, jet skis, ski mobiles and boats.
Oakridge's technology team is strongly engineering driven, with core capabilities in materials, product design, process control, manufacturing technology, quality and safety. The management team is comprised of individuals with long-term experience in both innovative startup companies and large industrial entities with worldwide operations in Chemical and Energy related sectors. Oakridge maintains its headquarters in the USA where it also has established product development and low volume manufacturing infrastructure. The company plans to expand in the US, EU, and Asia.
For additional information, please visit the Company's corporate website: www.OakG.net
This press release may contain "forward-looking statements." Expressions of future goals and similar expressions reflecting something other than historical fact are intended to identify forward-looking statements, but are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. These forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements about our market opportunity, strategies, competition, expected activities and expenditures as we pursue our business plan. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot predict the effect that market conditions, customer acceptance of products, regulatory issues, competitive factors, or other business circumstances and factors described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission may have on our results. The company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this press release.