ERP CEO Michael Archer has helped grow his company more than 1,000 percent in just a 3-year span.
Fastest Growing Companies | Sept. 25 – Oct. 1, 2015
By Phillip Jones
Staff Writer
ERP LED makes something so simple you probably don’t realize it’s there.
The Moorpark-based company makes power converters for LED light bulbs. These convert alternating current electricity into direct current electricity inside of the tiny bulbs. ERP LED was started in 2012 out of a company that was originally named Energy Recovery Products.
Since then, the company has experienced tremendous growth during the renewable energy business boom. “We’ve essentially gone from a handful of direct customers around the world, to well over 100 customers around the world that purchase our products,” said Andy Williams, ERP LED executive vice president.
ERP LED was the fastest growing company in the Tri-Counties from 2012 to 2014. During that time, revenues grew 1,090 percent from $930,185 in 2012 to about $8.6 million in 2013 to now more than $11 million in 2014.
“We’ve done that through customer expansion and we’ve also signed three distributors for our products.” Williams said.
Before the company switched its focus to LED lighting in 2012, its previous iteration focused on private labeling. At the time, the company created power conversion products that the business would sell to other companies whose labels would be on the product.
Williams said one of the company’s clients exposed Energy Recovery Products to the LED market. The firm quickly saw the potential in this line of work.
According to trade website LED Inside, the LED market grew 42 percent in 2013 to $18.8 billion.
“The LED market is expanding because of the energy savings and as well as the lifetime of the technology,” Williams said. “We’ve expanded our product portfolio specifically and our market segmentation within the lighting space.”
When ERP LED was started in 2012, Williams said the company focused mainly on creating converters for downlight fixtures, which are the circular lights in the small holes in homes and businesses. Now, he said, ERP makes converters for street lights, wall lights, and LED lights that light home walkways and boardwalks.
Williams said LED lighting for residential light fixtures is starting to become commercialized and commoditized, but LEDs are just starting to indent the commercial lighting sector. Williams estimated that just 5 percent of commercial lights are LED bulbs now.
Fluorescent bulbs that most warehouses use have several problems. They run very hot, they often contain mercury, and their lifespans are much shorter than most LED bulbs. Because they are often very high off the ground, some companies are attracted to LED bulbs because they don’t have to change them as often.
“Number one, they consume less power,” Williams said. “Secondly, they last longer and the lifespan is much longer than typical tungsten or incandescent fixtures.”