LED lights make up 60% of bulb market

With a 25 per cent growth rate, the LED light bulbs industry is growing tremendously year by year while almost every light is set to be LED-based by 2030.

An LED lamp or LED light bulb is an electric light that produces light using light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LED lamps are significantly more energy-efficient than their equivalent incandescent lamps and can be significantly more efficient than most fluorescent lamps.

The most efficient commercially available LED lamps have efficiencies of 200 lumens per watt (Lm/W). Commercial LED lamps have a lifespan many times longer than incandescent lamps.

According to a report titled “Marketing Strategy for Emerging LED Product in Lighting Industry of Bangladesh,” LED lights dominated 29 per cent market of the bulb sector in 2016, which is now nearly 60 per cent.

According to industry insiders, more than 60 per cent of the country’s LED bulbs market, which is estimated at nearly Tk 4,000 crore –Tk 5,000 crore, is already gobbled up by LEDs. They claimed that Bangladesh has a huge demand of nearly 8-9 crore units of electric bulbs per year.

Currently, around 60 per cent of the LED light market is dominated by brand companies, while the remaining 40 per cent has been captured by non-brand companies, according to the market leaders.

The branded companies are – Super Star of Super Star Group, Transtec of Transcom Electronics Ltd, Walton LED bulb of Walton, Energypac of Energypac Electronics LTD, Click of Pran RFL, and Sparkle of ACI Electrical, SQ and Hosaf.

There are many other non-branded companies available in the market such as Pasha, Osaka, Speed, Hee, Magic, and Cosmo.

While talking to The Business Post, Super Star Group AGM (Marketing) Md Sajjadul Islam said, “Super Star is the key market player to the LED light sector across the country as our company is dominating 30 to 35 per cent of the total market share with an annual growth rate of 18 to 20 per cent per year.”

Now, 80 per cent of the lights are LED, while only slum areas and some shops are still using conventional lights and CFL lights, he added.

Md Bayzid Kamal, senior brand executive (marketing and business development) of Super Star Group, said, “Our customers are more in rural areas than the metropolitan areas due to our strong distribution network as well as our customer-friendly services.”

Md Shakil Choudhury, general manager (Finance and Accounts Department) of Transcom Electronics Ltd, which is another giant among the country’s LED light makers, said, “The annual growth of our LED bulb business is nearly 15 to 20 per cent as we have nearly 20 per cent of the market share with a sale of LED lights worth Tk 220 crore in 2020.

According to SUNTEC Corporation of Japan (2009), a LED light bulb can save more than 80 per cent electricity with a working life of 40,000 hours.

Walton, the country’s leading brand of electronics and electrical products, is now manufacturing energy efficient and environment-friendly LED lights which are capable of saving up to 90 per cent more electricity than normal bulbs, says the Research and Development (R&D) Department of Walton.

Md Sohel Rana, chief business officer of Walton Electronic, said, “We are now holding about 15 per cent market share with more than 20 per cent annual growth while this year’s electrical appliance product revenue growth is 104.86 per cent.

“We were able to sell LED lights worth more than TK 130 crore even during the pandemic,” he added.

Kamaruzzaman Kamal, director of marketing (Pran RFL), noted that most of the raw materials for producing LEDs were totally imported from abroad during the last three to four years.

However, nearly 20 per cent of the raw materials are now being supported by the local manufacturers, he said, adding, “Click and Blaze are our popular LED products as we have about 10 per cent of its market share with an annual growth rate of 18-20 per cent.”

Md Nurul Akter, directors of Energypac Electronics Ltd said, “LED light bulb is marked as one of the most important invention in the history of modern technology, which is replaced by the GLS (general lighting service) or conventional light and CFL (compact fluorescent light) light and speedily take the place to customer’s mind for its environment friendly behavior.”

Md Ibrahim, owner of Lion Electric and Electronic at Jatrabari said, “I sell only Super Star and Transtec LED light because of the customers’ huge demand, better quality as well as customers’ satisfaction.’’ Mahabub Ali, who is purchasing some LED lights for his residence in Moghbazar area, prefers Super Star or Transtec because of their brand names and reputation.