GEORGE TOWN: IQ Group Holdings Bhd expects Japan to be a key market for its Lumiqs brand in three years, generating an estimated annual revenue of US$12mil.

Group chief executive officer Daniel Beasley told StarBiz that Japan is a strong market for the Lumiqs brand, as it has about 20 customers in the country.

“The product that they are buying is our intelligent LED highbay lighting system, which was released into the market three years ago. The product is for use in commercial premises,” he said.

IQ has either sales offices or partners distributing the product in Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.

The Japan market for Lumiqs is expected to generate about US$4.5mil this year, compared to US$1mil a year ago.

According to Beasley, IQ was in the process of relocating the production of about 30% its LED lighting products, which includes sensor lighting and stand-alone sensors to Dongguan, China.

“In Dongguan, China, we produced about 65% of our LED lighting products.

“The move will help us to consolidate and optimise our manufacturing activities.

“We expect our revenue and bottomline for 2020 to improve after the relocation exercise is completed in late 2018,” he added.

For the 2018 financial year ended March 31, the group posted an after tax loss of RM317,000 on the back of a RM154.6mil revenue.

“However, the relationships with our global customer based remain positive and we are fortunate to have considerable opportunities from both our new and existing customers with ongoing product development and related planned launches in the pipe line.

“Following the structural changes within IQ’s research and development resources to accelerate the product development capability, we remain motivated regarding the prospects ahead of us.

“We expect to return to the black in the 2019 financial year,” he added.

According to the latest report from LEDinside, the LED lighting market scale will achieve US$32.72bil in 2018 and will reach US$33.3bil in 2019 when lighting that can be replaced enter the period of saturation, while industrial, architectural and landscape, outdoor and special commercial lighting will keep on developing.

According to LED inside survey, the LED lighting penetration in 2017 is 22% and it is expected to reach 63% in 2022. The compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of installed LED lighting products will be 26% from 2017 to 2022, according to the report.

“Smart lighting, niche lighting and lighting in emerging countries are the top three driving forces for the global LED lighting market trend,” the report added.