Lighting firm F W Thorpe warns of more moderate trading

SPECIALIST lighting manufacturer F W Thorpe has warned shareholders its sales are likely to be “more moderated” in the short term, reflecting the difficult market conditions.

In a statement to the Redditch firm’s annual general meeting, chairman Andrew Thorpe said a number of factors in the lighting industry had had a bearing on performance.

“After a number of years of fairly rapid growth the current outlook leads us to believe that in the short term company sales performance is likely to be more moderated,” he said.
 
“The lighting market which we serve is not buoyant and is in the midst of a major technological change away from traditional discharge light sources to Light Emitting Diode or LED technology.
 
“This more muted market which we are experiencing may be due to a long expected effect on us of reduced government spending or perhaps in part to customers delaying lighting or re-lighting decisions until the pros and cons of the new technology becomes more clear to them.”
 
Nevertheless, he said the company was fully committed to LED innovation and would continue to utilise the technology to bring new products to market.