Mixed Reviews For Lumenpulse: Is The Future Clear?

Lumenpulse Inc. was the brightest of lighting IPO’s this year, at one point up nearly 50 per cent from its April début. The Canadian based manufacturer of LED lighting systems was putting up impressive growth numbers despite recessionary woes.

The company opened its EMEA office in London in Dec 2011 and then in July this year, acquired Projection Lighting Limited, a UK-based manufacturer of LED solutions for retail, display and architectural applications for a purchase price of $30.4 million (GBP 16.6 million), which was paid in cash.

Investors have taken a dimmer view since, thanks to a significant sales miss in its most recent quarter and an ill-timed, poorly received insider stock sale. Read more from The Globe and Mail about what analysts are saying.

Interview

Two years ago, I interviewed CEO Francois-Xavier Souvay (FX) and asked him the following;

Allen: When I sit here two years from now, what is Lumenpulse going to look like?

FX: It’s going to look exactly like what you see now but with a lot more products. I don’t want to disclose them now because I want to make a big surprise in the market (smiles).  But we are going to continue to expand into functional interior architectural lighting. I don’t want to do architectural decorative. I want to do functional/technical lighting. And we are going to continue to expand our exterior lighting portfolio. We have our 10 year roadmap and we are going to continue to innovate in technology and design.

I think two years from now I could see ourselves having at least one third of our revenues in Europe and the Middle East. It’s going very rapidly for us and I could also see ourselves having an office in Asia to support the South East Asia market. And I could see ourselves having more regional offices in Europe.

Lastly – great branding. That’s the key. We want our catalogue to summarize how we think: we think in families and then we show all the different options and we have different ways of communicating. Using great imagery, we show what it (a product) does, and introduce icons so that people can follow what’s available. All these things make a difference.  What we are doing is introducing formats that the market is accustomed to see from European companies. We’re about packaging, great branding and simple messaging that is consistent throughout everything we do.

Has he achieved that? Some perhaps. Most even. But not all. The share price has dropped rapidly since the second quarter was missed. A hard lesson in managing the investment community. But lets hope it doesn’t detract from the overall goal of the company – to make great products that simply do their job.

By Julie Allen
Editor

06 Nov