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Interview
conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, To be published –
June 4, 2012
CEOCFO:
Mr. Interiano, would you tell us about Sunovia Energy Technologies?
Mr.
Interiano:
Sunovia is a clean-tech company that designs and produces products for the
LED lighting market. LED (light emitting diodes) is the latest trend in the
lighting technology. Lighting started with incandescent light bulb over 100
years ago and now it has evolved through improvements in efficiency and new
technologies to solid state lighting.
CEOCFO: What types of products are the
focus at Sunovia?
Mr.
Interiano:
Our competency and strength is designing LED lighting fixtures. Our primary
focus has been fixtures for roadway lighting. For example, when you are
driving down the street at night, you are able to see the road because of
the street lighting. The majority of our portfolio is focused on street
lighting. We also have designed and developed fixtures for parking lot
lighting, as well as for the exterior of buildings, which we call, “wall
packs”, and also interior parking garage lighting.
CEOCFO: Are you designing these for mass
consumption or for specific projects?
Mr.
Interiano:
When the company started designing products, it was for roadway lighting,
which is very standard, so it was for mass consumption. As our technology
improved, we proactively developed custom features to meet specific
customers requests. Since I have taken over as CEO a few weeks ago, we are
re-focusing our efforts on designing, developing and producing
technologically advanced and cost effective products for the mass markets
once again. In essence, taking all that we learned through the years and
delivering a suite of the best roadway lighting fixtures on the market.
CEOCFO: What is special about a Sunovia
product?
Mr.
Interiano:
I have to give the credit here to the founders of Sunovia. They were
visionaries and they developed very innovative fixture designs. They
analyzed the entire roadway light fixture market and identified the
weaknesses in the old technologies. Then they corrected the weaknesses and
incorporated these solutions into the Sunovia product lines and developed a
unique product offering based in proven and protected IP. Our lighting brand
is EvoLucia and we have patented a concept and technology called Aimed
Optics™, our light platform is our Aimed Optics Platform. To give you a
little background, when you emit light from a fixture you can do it in three
ways. You can shoot it directly onto a target area, you can refract it onto
the target area or you can reflect it onto the target area. Now when you
refract and reflect, you lose light efficiency along the way. When you shoot
it directly or aim it at the target efficiency is greatly increased. We have
broken away from the old lighting paradigm of refraction or reflection and
designed our intellectual property around targeting light directly and this
is what we call our Aimed Optics platform. We are aiming the light and
hitting the target area as efficiently as is mathematically possible.
CEOCFO: What is different about the
Sunovia approach?
Mr.
Interiano:
Most of our competitors arrange their LEDs on a single plane, populating
their LEDs on one flat surface, and then adding secondary optics to
distribute light. We use more than one plane. We use three planes; three
dimensions to position our lighting. This technique allows us to tightly
control the optics of our fixtures, giving EvoLucia fixtures the most
targeted light distribution and the most optically efficient products on the
market.
CEOCFO: What is the market potential?
Mr.
Interiano:
I do not have actual statistics to give you, but the market potential is
estimated to be about $100 billion. How much penetration is there with this
new technology? The last number published that I saw from, I believe the
Department of Energy, was less than 5% penetration. Therefore, there is
still plenty of market available and now with the cost of LEDs coming down,
life expectancy on the product is a lot longer than old technology. In
addition, there are some utility rebates out there, so now the return on
investment to the potential buyer is there. Therefore, we are beginning to
see a lot of interest and activity from potential customers due to the fact
that the technology is available and the ROI makes sense.
CEOCFO: How does Sunovia reach potential
customers and what is your overall marketing strategy?
Mr.
Interiano:
For our marketing strategy, we use the different channels to sell and
distribute our product. We work with lighting agents and lighting specifiers
to get our products specified into lighting projects and to reach end-users.
We work with electrical distributors, who carry our products and sell to
installers and contractors. We also form partnerships with OEMs—where are
products are co-branded, re-branded or private labeled.
CEOCFO: Do most of your end users
understand the differences and the types of LEDs or do they tend to look at
price?
Mr.
Interiano:
Most of the end users are knowledgeable about both the technology and
product offerings. What has happened lately though is the transition from
old technology to new has required the end users to look at the investment
from a different perspective. Rather than just the upfront capital cost, now
in the industry, what we are looking for is the total cost of ownership. For
example, a LED light engine does not fail within the same period of time
that old technology fails, so life expectancy has increased. When you
increase life expectancy, there is no more need for continually replacing
light bulbs. Therefore, there is no more need to have a maintenance crew out
on the streets frequently replacing light sources, because the LED product
lasts a lot longer. The other piece is the energy savings. Our new LED
technology saves somewhere from 50% to 65% when compared to the old
technology.
CEOCFO: There have been a number of
changes at Sunovia, including yourself coming on as CEO; is the team in
place?
Mr.
Interiano:
Growing a company in a new technology area is always going to be a moving
target. However, the key team is in place. We have recruited new board
members that are very experienced in the lighting industry. I come from the
lighting industry and I have started to form my team, with a strong focus on
the technological piece. When you have a technology that is so disruptive
and it is improving every six to twelve months, you need to have a very good
research and development function in your company to keep up with the
changes and to introduce products at the same rate.
CEOCFO: What is the financial picture
like for Sunovia Energy Technologies today?
Mr. Interiano: The financial picture is
a lot better, compared to the financial picture from last year. We just
completed a private placement where we raised a total of about $5 million in
capital. We are covering our cost, ramping up production to be able to meet
increased demand. Overall, I am happy with the state of financial status
today, and again as I mentioned, with our team, this is a continued
progression.
CEOCFO: Why should investors pay
attention to Sunovia Energy Technologies today?
Mr.
Interiano:
Sunovia has intellectual property, which we trademarked under Aimed Optics.
With Aimed Optics, we will always have a mathematical advantage as long as
we use the latest components. We have won awards, such as the US Department
of Energy award for the best outdoor LED light. One of the major lighting
brands has engaged us, as their vendor for roadway lighting. These three big
categories are something that not every roadway lighting company has. We are
a pure LED play. What I mean by that is that we are a company that sells
only LED lighting products. We do not come from the old technology where we
would have fluorescent or high intensity discharge products. We are 100%
LED.
CEOCFO:
What should people remember most about Sunovia?
Mr. Interiano:
We are poised to go through an explosive growth phase. We will be focusing a
good amount of energy on marketing and branding. We will be working on
getting the message out that we are one of the most intelligent LED
companies in the marketplace.
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