MIC Electronics Limited, a Hyderabad-based manufacturer of LED (light-emitting diode) lighting and display systems, is readying itself to take a plunge into the fast-growing LED lighting retail segment, though in a small way to start with, according to chairman and managing director MV Ramana Rao.
“We are going the fanchisee way and have already roped in city-based Navya Lighting for the same. Our first exclusive outlet, with a floor space of 4,000 sft and involving an investment of Rs 50 lakh, will be rolled out in Hyderabad by the end of this August,” he told Business Standard.
Plans to have a pan-India retail presence are very much on the cards and the company would take a call on this at its board meet, scheduled to be held on August 5, Rao said, adding that the company would initially focus on the southern market. “Price plays a major role in lighting systems and our idea is to give the end-user products with affordable prices,” he said, while refusing to comment further.
LED lights (which are nearly three times more energy efficient and last six times longer than the compact fluorescent lamps) market in India was worth Rs 221 crore in 2009 and is expected to reach Rs 1,700 crore by 2015, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 41.5 per cent.
Rao said the company was on the verge of achieving financial closure for its Rs 300-crore manufacturing capacity expansion across 15 products including tubelights and bulbs (indoor), streetlights range comprising seven varieties (outdoor) and sheetlight and homelights (solar). “We are currently utilising Rs 50 crore worth of production. The new expansion is going as scheduled and will take a year from now to go for mass production,” he said.
MIC Electronics exported$1.5 million worth of products to the US, UK, Mexico and Australia during the 2010-11 financial year.
“Post the recession, we reworked our export strategies and made a good entry by supplying LED screens to universities and schools abroad. This year, exports are likely to double,” Rao said.
The company, which follows a July-June financial year, registered revenues of Rs 217.10 crore for the nine-month period ended March 2011.
