Australia businessreview

ECHO GROUP / CHERRY ENERGY SOLUTIONS
There’s an energy revolution going on and Echo Group
CEO Erik Zimmerman and COO Ben Wright tell Niki
Waldegrave how its businesses are at the forefront of it
When Erik Zimmerman
watched A Crude
Awakening, a
documentary on the planet’s
dwindling oil resources in 2006,
his life would never be the same.
By day, he was the head of
learning at ANZ Bank. By night,
he was an entrepreneurial
energy crusader, meeting up
with the Alternative Technology
Association and solar engineers
asking how he could put solar
on every roof in the country.
That question occupied
his mind 24/7 until he got the
lightbulb moment – bulk buy solar
neighbourhoods. So, in 2007
Zimmerman extended his mortgage
by $365k, left ANZ and launched
his company, Rezeko (Eko Energy).
“My parents thought I was nuts,”
he laughs, “But I think businesses
that answer a question are
always a great place to start.”
The gamble paid off, and by the
time he sold Rezeko’s business
assets to AGL in 2011, it was the
third biggest solar company in
Australia, with 8000 installations and
a turnover of more than $30 million.
Now he’s the CEO and joint
director of Echo Group – along with
Ben Wright, founder of upmarket fruit
and vegetable business, The Market
Runners – focusing on Australia’s
booming energy movement,
from solar panels to energy
efficient lighting, with exclusive
manufacturing relationships
across Asia Pacific and SE Asia.
“When we invested in Littil, it
was a small LED lighting business
but had the look and feel of the
solar market 10 years earlier,”
says Zimmerman, “where the
prices were due to come down,
“The of
what we have is in
the we have
in the business”
– Erik Zimmerman, Chief Executive Officer
66 September 2017