Monday, March 24, 2014: GIBSS develops a wide array of LED lighting products, which can replace diverse conventional lighting systems across different types of buildings, whether they are commercial, residential or industrial. “It is important to educate the customers on the quality and design parameters of LED lamps. There is a positive shift in attitude, but when it comes to buying, customers are usually swayed by low pricing, and they compromise on the quality standards,” says Suhas Sampathkumar, head, strategic business, GIBSS, in a conversation with Srabani Sen of Electronics Bazaar.
EB: What are the technological advances in today’s LED products?
The LED market today is heavily fragmented. There are players offering all types of products at varying levels of quality, at prices ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 2000 for some common applications. Our emphasis is on premium quality offerings with the right certifications to ensure the maximum sustained benefit to customers.
All GIBSS LED products use Cree LEDs. Our heat sink, for which we hold a joint patent, is the result of a collaboration with a market leader that has a 46 per cent (as of 2009) market share in the global heat sink market. Our power circuits and lenses are from market leaders in Europe and our drivers/transformers are from the US. The complete package makes our lamp a high quality product that is compliant with L80 standards set by the US department of energy for LED lamps.
EB: What are the LED products you manufacture?
Our indoor and outdoor lighting applications include tube lights, downlights, halogen type LED retrofits, etc. Our latest launch has been the street lighting products that are available with both LED and induction lighting technology.
EB: From which region or cities do you get more demand for your LED products?
Over the last two years, we have seen a lot of demand from large private facility owners across building categories (the most popular being hospitality, hospitals, commercial buildings, pharmaceuticals and industrial set-ups, which operate on a 24-hour basis) in Tier I and Tier II cities. There are also special schemes promoted by government agencies, especially to encourage adoption of LEDs in the public sector domain. We are seeing an increased drive to convert street lighting to LEDs, as it offers two main benefits to end users—energy savings of up to 80 per cent and an extremely long life of up to 5-15 years.
EB: What are the challenges you face while doing this business in India?
The main challenge is of awareness. As mentioned earlier, the LED market is fragmented. It is important to educate buyers on the quality and design parameters of LED lamps. There is a positive shift in attitude, but when it comes to buying, customers are usually swayed by low pricing, and they compromise on quality standards.
EB: Are you coming up with any new products this year?
GIBSS recently launched LED lights specifically for residential use. These are all retrofits, which enables easy transition for the residents. Retail will be the main focus for GIBSS this coming financial year. We intend to focus on high quality, affordable LEDs for the common people.
EB: What are the new technologies that you are adopting?
We are trying to improve our design standards to provide ease of replacement. We are actively looking to get into induction and cold cathode lighting technology, something that is being developed by our internal product development teams. In any typical building, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and lighting constitute about 70-80 per cent of the total energy lkoad. We helpbringthisdownby 45-65 per cent, using geothermal ooling and LED lighting systems.
EB: What are your growth plans for this year?
We plan to see exponential growth in the coming few years, with LED technology gaining prominence not only on the technology front, but also experiencing commercial viability.
EB: Are you looking for partners, such as distributors, systems integrators, etc?
Yes, we are keen on working with distributors and making strategic partnerships with those who bring with them expertise in HVAC and lighting domain.
Electronics Bazaar, South Asia’s No.1 Electronics B2B magazine
