Dialight CEO Doubles Sales Team on Rising Use of LEDs

(Corrects tense in headline, opening paragraphs of story originally published Aug. 10.)

Dialight Plc (DIA), a maker of light- emitting diode fittings used at the London Olympics, doubled its sales team as more businesses switch to energy-efficient lighting for industrial applications.

Sales staff increased to 39 at the end of June from 17 a year earlier, Chief Executive Officer Roy Burton said today by telephone. Growth has been underpinned by Dialight’s industrial solid-state lighting unit, which makes LED products commonly used in factories, building exteriors and parking decks.

Dialight has benefited from growing demand among the manufacturing, construction and transport industries for lighting that’s safer, easier to maintain and less polluting than traditional incandescent beams. Profit has risen every year for five years, stoking an almost threefold jump in its shares.

Dialight, based in Newmarket, England, is starting to “step up its commitment to investing in its direct sales and marketing capabilities,” said Andrew Shepherd-Barron, an analyst at London-based Peel Hunt LLP with a buy rating on the stock. This may allow the company to win “significant” market share, he said.

Revenue rose 18 percent to 61.1 million pounds ($95.3 million) in the first half, driven by 65 percent growth in solid-state lighting, Dialight said July 23. Contracts this year included an order from London’s ExCeL arena for so-called High Bay LEDs ahead of the Olympic Games.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Metcalf in London at tmetcalf7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net