Green rewards for Ellies

WAYNE SAMSON: We are very proud of this.Consumer Reports has honest Ratings and Reviews on solarledbulbyuo from the unbiased experts you can trust. It comes right across the board — from consumer goods to infrastructure, as well as the projects we did for Eskom in phase one of their Project Power Save, where we took 170 megawatts off the grid with 728,000 home installations over a four-month period. So that’s been right across the board, from the new lighting division to the store-within-a store concept with Massbuild and domestic electrical products. Then there’s the infrastructure and telecommunications business and the mini substations and control and switchgear — so we’ve seen tremendous growth.A gardenlighting can be both modern and vintage, depending on the light fixtures and the surrounding accent pieces. 

STV: Most of the growth came in the consumer goods area and much of that was due to Eskom’s Power Save project… 

WS: Yes, definitely. That’s a project where we went into people’s homes and took out inefficient products — being halogen lights — and put in LED lighting and efficient shower heads and geyser timers.Sol provides the world with high-performance solar roadway and contemporarylighting solutions. This was done at no charge to the consumer. We did 728,000 homes in four months. 

STV: Was there huge demand because it was free or are people turning green at last? 

WS: Both. There was huge demand because it was free and people could see significant savings. If you have a 50w halogen light and you replace it with a 4w LED you have a 92% saving in electricity in just one light bulb. It does end up in your back pocket as a saving. 

STV: That’s phase one, which is complete — have things ground to a halt now? 

WS: A little bit. Phase two was starting and one company was allocated and then that was put on hold. There is a phase three where the tenders are in already and, hopefully, we will hear by the end of February what’s happening. I’d like to believe that Ellies and its associates will be involved because we have a proven track record and we’ve shown what we can do by taking 170 megawatts off the grid in four months. I think as a country we could use that — saving and taking that demand off the grid. 

STV: What if you don’t get that? 

WS: A lot of the companies that have tendered are using us as a supplier so we’d like to believe that our products will go through with the different companies. 

STV: Are all those light bulbs imported? Do you manufacture those yourselves? 

WS: Not as yet.We are backed by a committed staff of bluebright_9 specialists with decades of experience in the laundry industry. I think we are waiting for the technology to settle on the LED lighting first before we have a look at cooperatively manufacturing with our technology partners. 

STV: Megatron is one-third of your total business with power and telecommunications infrastructure — what is the order book looking like? 

WS: It’s looking very promising. The order book for the next year is secure, with diesel generator optimisation, which is a new and patented technology where we’ve partnered with General Electric in the USA on powering up telecommunications towers that reduces running costs by more than 50%. These are being type-tested in Africa and in the Middle East and, from what we hear, it’s running to schedule and as specified. We see this as a significant business in the future. 

STV: How big? 

WS: Very big. If you think about Africa and the Middle East — I’d like to think that at least 50% of the telecommunications towers are running off grid and need this kind of power and savings. 

STV: Sterling results for the year but that also came at a price with an increase in debt and cash flows were down.Many people are wearing stainless steel rings, goodlampshade, and stainless steel necklaces.