Future Light (India) is a Mumbai-based firm, engaged in manufacturing of exclusive range of lighting products for its valued clients. The company boasts of its four-decade old heritage of being manufacturer, exporter & importer in lighting industry. Offering environment-friendly products with high efficiency, easy operation, better illumination capacity, longer service life and less maintenance, it has created a high repute amongst its clients. It provides quality, high performance and reliability in all of its products, including different types of LED light fixtures & accessories that can be used for various indoor & outdoor lighting solutions.
Future Light assures its customers cost effective lighting solutions that reduce their operating costs. Over the years, it has emerged as a trustworthy and reliable firm in the country’s lighting industry. The products that it supplies are widely used for lighting and decorative purposes in residential and commercial areas. We, at LED World, met Ronak Shah & Dilip Shah, the company’s Director duo to know what is their USP and how are they able to maintain their responsibility of providing high quality products to their customers. Edited excerpts of our conversation are here:
How are you placed in the country’s lighting industry?
We were supplying components to most lighting majors such as Bajaj, CG, Wipro, etc. for their conventional lighting. So the moment LED came, we shifted our focus to LED components also. As of now, we have around 400 manufacturers under us, who supply LED components & accessories, which the lighting companies use to make their luminaries. And now we are focusing on complete solutions like smart lighting solutions with colour changing and dimming attributes, which is the future of LEDs.
What kind of support were you offering to lighting manufacturers?
We were offering all-round support to every manufacturer who contacted us. For the luminaries, we provide them R&D, testing facility, and of course, backend support. We have also rolled out products in our own brand name for which we have an existing market. Our portfolio is a consortium of lighting solutions for both indoor & outdoor applications encompassing domestic, commercial and industrial. We have a network of dealers and distributors for all these solutions to market.
What all comprises your product portfolio?
Our brand name is Future Light (India) under which we provide a wide range of lighting products right from a simple bulb to an entire lighting system for residence, modern work spaces, offices, conference rooms, cafeteria, shopping malls, restaurants, retail shops, showrooms, street lighting, car park, gardens, pathways and many more. We have a dedicated team with detailed knowledge, required technical skills and industry experience to carry out all business activities in a fruitful way.
Other than that, what else do you have in your list of offerings?
We also offer LEDs, including complete package of SMD LEDs from 0.25W to 5W. We have just launched two-colour LEDs, which very few people have for now because the concept is new. We also have special LEDs like 5050RGB, which have three colours in one chip, enabling lighting companies to make multi-colour lighting solutions.
What’s the latest addition to your product portfolio?
We have recently added RGB lighting to our offerings. It is operated through IR remote that allows 16-colours and facilitates four colour-changing operational modes which is sufficient for outdoor illumination. However, if it is operated with the smartphone app-based controller, it can be tuned up to 16-million colours. This is required for high-end decor purpose. Another new product from our banner is a smartlight which allows illumination variation from white to warm white i.e. 2700K to 6700K, and can be operated with the help of smartphone app-based controller.
What made you introduce your own brand? Where are you sourcing the components from?
We are the third generation in lighting business and have eventually seen the transition right from GLS to CFL to LEDs. Till CFL, we were the suppliers to the vendors of country’s leading lighting manufacturers including Crompton, Bajaj, Surya and Wipro. But the time LED entered into lighting arena, we decided to develop our own brand instead of trading in components for these OEMs. We are not supporting any OEM for now as we already have rolled out our brand, for which we are sourcing major components from China & Korea and a few from India.
How and why one should approach Future Light?
We are one of the oldest players in the country’s lighting industry. We already have our own manufacturing because we had been supplying solutions to country’s lighting biggies. Many people used to come with that reference as well. Besides, we also participate in lighting exhibitions twice or thrice a year. We do have our social media platforms where we keep promoting our products and brands. Apart from that we have our commission agents and sales team who go in the market and take orders for us.
How do you ensure quality of your products?
Our firm is extremely conscious to the quality, and hence, we continuously work on the improvement of the same. All our lighting products are tested several times in different parameters to let our customers have the best lighting products. All our products are approved as per CE Norms.
What are the typical issues that you come across?
Right now, we have a huge market for LEDs. But people do not bother about what kind of products they should go for. They don’t think of the quality of components like LED chip used in that particular lighting unit. But we think the time is right for customers to take note of all these. This is because cheap sub-standard lighting products are there in abundance, which are harmful not only for their pockets but for health as well. Price sensitivity in our culture is killing the quality.
Customers’ awareness is very important even if it is from purchasing point of view. We want consumers to at least ask for ISI marked products. They must check the product thoroughly before making final purchase. It a must now and it’s not just for lighting. Customers have to decide what they want from the manufacturers, and accordingly, we would develop that for them.
Why do you expect all this from a customer?
There are certain points that the consumers must be aware of. Let’s talk about PF (power factor) value. It is very small thing, which some manufacturers highlight, while some just let it go. People aren’t aware that higher the PF would be, lower will be their electricity bill. Unless a consumer is made aware about all this, he would keep incurring losses. In simple words, lighting unit with low PF requires more electricity and it consumes more power to illuminate.
What about the issue of flickering in LEDs?
As far as flickering is concerned, 3-5% is fine. If it is higher, it will make people feel tired after certain period under the light. Apart from that, we should also consider CCT (correlated colour temperature), which is a measure of light source colour appearance and it is defined by the proximity of the light source’s chromaticity coordinates to the blackbody locus, as a single number rather than the two required to specify a chromaticity. In LEDs, CCT defines the colour appearance of a white LED. CCT is defined in degrees Kelvin; a warm light is around 2700K, moving to neutral white at around 4000K, and to cool white, at 5000K or more.
