Today
Jon Cooper, President of Lighting Components and Design, Inc. (LC&D)
announced record sales for the year ended December 31, 1999, up 41%
over the prior year. He said:
"Together,
our Leecraft and Littelites lines experienced a combined growth of 41%
over 1999. While 10% of that growth is attributable to the acquisition
of the Littelites line in 1999, fully 31% of our year-to-year growth
was in our core Leecraft product line.
"Over
the past four years our sales grew in excess of 110%. Our current Business
Plan projects further growth of 100% over 1999’s levels by 2002
to 2003. Current sales rates, incoming orders and backlogs are all at
record levels, and are fully supportive of the high end of that forecast."
"According
to industry sources, our growth rate has been more than four times that
of our industry peers; in fact, the industry average growth rate last
year was less than 10% at the same time we were growing 41%.
Today
Jon Cooper, President of Lighting Components and Design, Inc. (LC&D)
announced record sales for the year ended December 31, 1999, up 41%
over the prior year. He said:
"Together,
our Leecraft and Littelites lines experienced a combined growth of 41%
over 1999. While 10% of that growth is attributable to the acquisition
of the Littelites line in 1999, fully 31% of our year-to-year growth
was in our core Leecraft product line.
"Over
the past four years our sales grew in excess of 110%. Our current Business
Plan projects further growth of 100% over 1999’s levels by 2002
to 2003. Current sales rates, incoming orders and backlogs are all at
record levels, and are fully supportive of the high end of that forecast."
"According
to industry sources, our growth rate has been more than four times that
of our industry peers; in fact, the industry average growth rate last
year was less than 10% at the same time we were growing 41%.
Cooper
deferred on providing further sales details, saying, "LC&D
is privately owned with annual sales approximating $10,000,000. Its
exact earnings and profits are confidential, however I can say in all
candor that our company has been profitable "from day one."
Dun and Bradstreet rate its margins and credit worthiness in the top
quartile of firms.
"We
continue to reap the rewards of a six-year investment of time, energy
and money in the Leecraft line and in our basic manufacturing, custom
product design and support operations.
"Our
multi-million dollar investments in automation, state-of-the-art manufacturing
systems, design systems, customer support and information systems gives
LC&D a competitive edge in our market niche.
"Customers
are excited by our response time of a few days or weeks, instead of
several months – much faster than our competitors. We are organized
and focused on responding to unique customer requirements and changing
market needs. We beat them straight across the board in…
"In
the last two years we achieved our "critical mass" of production
and engineering design staff and facilities. The coming years will focus
on new market opportunities for derivative products built on our current
product line, and on totally new products based on emerging technologies.
This plan has served us well over the years and forms the ‘strong
right leg’ of our growth strategy.
"The
other leg of our growth strategy is our "selective strategic acquisition
strategy." This focuses on horizontal integration by acquiring
product lines and companies having similar products or manufacturing
process, and ‘orphan’ product lines of much larger companies.
The successful acquisition and integration of the Leecraft line in 1993
and the Littelites line in 1999 were the first steps in a planned series
of acquisitions over the next three years.
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