Article on a french newspaper "Le Figaro": Homelights, 18 months of experience

We often need a smaller than self. Toshiba has an alliance with a French start-up, Homelights, to market in Europe its LED lamps in food superstores and DIY stores.
Homelights was founded in June 2008 by Ludovic Rambert, a self-made man of 36 years. "I worked in retail and I was convinced that a revolution was brewing in the lighting”, he says simply.

He made his first table with all investors subject to the ISF, who can exempt a part of their seed money. Homelights raise this way 450,000 euros. The company is currently realized its third table. In 2008, Homelights set up a joint venture with a Chinese industrial, Foudi Light Electronics, which manufactures most of its LED range.

The products are designed by the Homelights’ Franco-Chinese team based in Shanghai. The success won’t be long. The last year, the french realized a turnover of 1.4 million euros. This year, he gamble on sales between 10 and 12 million euros.

Ludovic Rambert chose to manufacture its products in China, not so much by reason of the cost of production than to be near of its electronic components suppliers.

The ideal would be to have an assembly plant in France. This would allow us to reduce our manufacturing delays and costs of non-quality, "says Ludovic Rambert, who specifies sometimes refused" half of a production for quality problems: the standards are not the same in China and in Europe”

In addition, the production cycle in China is three months, including travel time. It must therefore be six months of inventory. A real problem in a market which evolved precisely every three months.

"To manufacture in France would allow us to be more competitive, more reactive. With Toshiba, we wish to repatriate a part of the production. But it is a real challenge of re-industrialization of France," said Ludovic Rambert.

With its Japanese partner, he worked to assure that a packing plant at Dieppe, in the facilities of Toshiba. The project is under financial assessment. By 2012, the two partners would like to also achieve the assembly. A fine prospect for the future of the site