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| LEDtronics CEO and Founder Pervaiz Lodhie oversees a COVID-19 guidelines-compliant production assembly line as technicians build LED bulb parts at the company’s Torrance, Calif. plant.
Photo by Raffi Shubukian/LEDtronics |
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By David Dickstein, contributor
TORRANCE, Calif., July 27 2020 — Pervaiz Lodhie doesn’t need the brightness of
a 118,000-lumen LED High Mast Luminaire to see the impact COVID-19 has on the
lighting industry. He need look no further than the company he and his wife founded
in 1983.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in my four decades in the business,” said
Lodhie, the 76-year-old CEO of Torrance, Calif.-based LEDtronics, one of the
few lighting manufacturers in the United States. “We’ve endured recessions,
9/11 and other pandemics, but this crisis is particularly challenging and scary
because of the unknown.”
So much about the disease is still a mystery – its epidemiology, when a
vaccine will be developed, whether a second wave is coming – as Lodhie
points out. “These and other challenges have a direct impact on business,
let alone health,” he said.
As for the latter, everyone at LEDtronics is enjoying good health, according
to a wood-knocking Lodhie. Since Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency,
all guidelines have been followed or exceeded at the company. COVID-19-related
cleanings are performed daily at the entire South Bay facility. “The wellbeing
of our employees is Job #1,” Lodhie said.
Turning to the health of the company, LEDtronics is shining brightly despite
the current challenges. Helping LEDtronics weather the COVID-19 storm was a series
of corrective actions the company serendipitously took prior to the pandemic.
These included cutting expenses, improving efficiency and returning to core strengths
and products. Being prudent, proactive and essential have enabled LEDtronics
to remain fully operational during a tumultuous first half of 2020.
“We have survived under impossible circumstances in part because we design,
manufacture
and ship our products ‘just-in-time,’” Lodhie said, referring
to the methodology aimed primarily at reducing times within the production system
as well as response times from suppliers and to customers.
A strong customer base doesn’t hurt, either. LEDtronics serves almost 80
percent of Fortune 500 companies, the majority being part of “essential” market
segments – OEM, government, defense, utility, healthcare, food packaging.
“As a supplier of critical parts to essential businesses, from defense and aerospace
to government and power plants, we, too, qualify as an ‘essential business’ and
can stay open,” Lodhie said. “The ability to keep the lights on,
so to speak, comes with the need to make sure there is no disruption during this
period and to provide our customers with the same excellent service and superior
quality LED lighting products that we have since 1983.”
Being fully operational doesn’t mean it’s been business as usual
for LEDtronics, however.
“We’re definitely working under different work conditions,” Lodhie
said, noting that some full-time employees are working remotely and part-time. “Not
surprisingly, there’s been a slowdown in work coming in and work going
out.”
Reduced orders have eased production at LEDtronics’ factory in Torrance,
where 75 percent of the company’s products are either manufactured or assembled.
As for the remainder, the company’s plant in Pakistan and its strategic
partners in China have operated at full capacity since early June.
“I have no doubt many companies with bad financial fallback plans will not survive
this once-in-a-century global disaster,” Lodhie said.
The entire lighting industry is about to be at a crossroads due to the COVID-19
pandemic, according to a recent report by ResearchAndMarkets.com. The study implies
that “with the energy industry being the hardest hit by the pandemic and
the stringent lockdown and restrictions imposed by governments worldwide, the
LED lighting market will feel the shocks.”
As for Lodhie’s outlook for his industry, he sees an LED light at the end
of the tunnel.
“I have no doubt that soon we will have robust economic growth,” he said. “Companies
that survive this pandemic will be stronger than before, us included.”
— David Dickstein is a California-based freelance journalist. He
is a regular contributor to the Southern California News Group, publisher
of the South Bay Daily Breeze,
and other news organizations.
About LEDtronics®
Since 1983, LEDtronics has been America's Premium Brand LED Company. We are
the pioneers of designing, manufacturing and packaging LED lighting products
for hundreds of industries and thousands of customers, including 80 percent
of Fortune 500 companies and all the major national and regional US distributors.
LEDtronics is proud to have been manufacturing in the USA for over three
decades now. The company is a qualified Government and Defense supplier (CAGE
code 8Z410), and over 800 National Stock Numbers (NSN) have been assigned
to our products over the years. All of our products come with an UNCONDITIONAL
U.S. factory warranty.
For more information, contact LEDtronics by...
Website: http://www.LEDtronics.com
Phone: 1-800-579-4875
E-mail: info@ledtronics.com
Fax: 310-534-1424
Company Address: 23105 Kashiwa Court, Torrance, CA 90505
