Lighting
Components and Design, Manufacturer of the Leecraft and Littelites families
of miniature lighting devices, was featured as the lead story in the
e-Business Section of Florida’s Daily Business Review.
LC&D
was called "… one of the most dynamic forces behind the region’s
new economy."
The company
employs approximately 200 people in its Deerfield Beach Manufacturing
facility.
Lighting
Components and Design, Manufacturer of the Leecraft and Littelites families
of miniature lighting devices, was featured as the lead story in the
e-Business Section of Florida’s Daily Business Review this week.
Frank Alvarado,
business editor of the Florida Business review, extensively interviewed
Dave Dickler, Chief Financial Officer of LC&D for the week’s
feature story, a lengthy article focused on Manufacturers in the Florida
Business Community.
The lead
paragraph said, in part, "… Lighting Components and Design
(is) one of the most dynamic forces behind the region’s new (manufacturing)
economy."
The following
is a brief extract from the interview at LC&D’s Corporate Headquarters
in Deerfield Beach, Florida, during which Dickler said:
"We
are not the classical contract manufacturer… in fact, we are not
a contract manufacturer at all. A contract manufacturer competes on
price alone, building devices that are designed and specified to the
nth degree by his customer. They have no input into the design of the
product, building what they are told to build, exactly to spec, often
having little knowledge of how and where their product is used.
"Because
of the lack of "value-added" services to their OEM customers,
Contract Manufacturers are forced to compete on price alone. The typical
Contract Manufacturer may succeed and grow its sales revenues for a
while, but in the end, they cannot succeed. Eventually someone will
come along with a lower price, to take away their business, or force
them into a death spiral of rising volumes coupled with decreasing prices
and margins.
"That’s
why so much contract manufacturing has moved from the U.S.A. offshore
to the Caribbean (primarily the Dominican Republic) and to the Peoples
Republic of China. If the contract manufacturer has no value-added,
no unique technology or extraordinary capital investment, all they are
is a source of cheap labor – and labor is NOT cheap in the U.S.A.
"Sooner
or later most contract manufacturing of products with little or no value-added
will all go offshore to Third world and developing countries, where
wages and benefits are 1/10th or less that of the United States.
"Therefore
our strategy at Lighting Components and Design is built around our role
as a "niche" value-added manufacturer providing "value-added"
standard and custom designed miniature lighting devices to a wide range
of OEM customers.
"Our
core expertise almost defines our market niche which consists of:
Press Room 
