BD Lamps to set up production line to make parts of tube lights

Bangladesh Lamps, widely known as BD Lamps, is going to set up a new production line to manufacture plastic parts of tube lights at its existing factory in Narsingdi's Shibpur.
In a stock exchange filing on Tuesday, the electric bulb producer said the estimated cost of the project would be Tk 111 million and the funds would be arranged through bank borrowings.
The board of the company has also decided to outsource GLS (general lighting service) bulbs as, it said, high production costs prompted the company to consider discontinuing the bulb production.
Company secretary Mohammad Ruhan Miah said the installation of the new production line would begin shortly.
Meanwhile, the production line that the company started building in January to manufacture accessories of electric bulbs has completed at the cost of Tk 32 million and began rolling out production.
Bangladesh Lamps, an enterprise of Transcom Group, posted a 72 per cent year-on-year growth in profit for FY22, riding on higher sales in LED (light emitting diode) segments and optimisation of operating costs.
After the remarkable profit growth, the company paid 20 per cent cash and 7 per cent stock dividends to its shareholders for FY22.
However, the company failed to keep up the growth momentum in the nine months through March this year. Although sales revenue surged 16 per cent to Tk 1.34 billion during the period, compared to the previous year, the profit tumbled 81 per cent year-on-year to Tk 10.71 million in the nine months to March.
The company blamed the profit decline on the rising finance cost and costlier raw materials as the dollar became stronger against the local currency.
Following the revelation of the profit plunge, the company's stock price fell to hit the floor at Tk 252.2 on April 26 this year. It has been stuck there since.
In a disclosure made in January, the company said, it was expecting that net sales would be Tk 219.4 million and profit before tax Tk 4.40 million per year from the accessories segment.
The company suffered a loss of Tk 92.5 million in FY20 for the first time. It said the expected revenue target could not be achieved that year due to the Covid outbreak.
Bangladesh Lamps was incorporated in 1960 as a subsidiary of Philips, Holland. The company got listed on the stock exchanges in 1981.
In 1993, Philips sold its entire stake to Transcom Group, one of the largest enterprises in the country.
The company manufactures electric bulbs, compact fluorescent lamps, tube lights and other lighting products under Transtec brand and markets them through its countrywide distribution network.

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