It appears an Oxford-based company could be illuminating the streets of a huge, new development in the Middle East.
‘We’ll know in about a month if we get the contract,? said Mike McClear, chief executive officer of Relume Technologies located at 925 N. Lapeer Rd. (across from Meijer).
The contract to which McClear referred is to manufacture all the LED street and decorative lights for Al Reem Island, a residential, commercial and business project being constructed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
‘It may be 6,000 to 8,000 units ? a big job for us,? McClear said. ‘They’re estimating they’ll be able to take delivery of those lights beginning in January 2009.?
Founded in 1994, Relume Technologies invented and manufactures aluminum circuit boards coated with a patented insulator that absorbs and dissipates the heat from light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which are semiconducting devices that emit light when voltage is applied.
This technology has enabled Relume to produce a wide array of products including street lights that burn brighter, last longer and are much more energy efficient than traditional incadescent lighting.
On Friday, Relume shipped eight cobra head style street lights to UAE to be installed along a road on Al Reem Island and evaluated by a consulting company and Khalifa bin Zyed Al Nahyan, president of the UAE and hereditary emir and ruler of Abu Dhabi, the nation’s capital located near Al Reem Island.
‘There’s going to be a big demonstration maybe the first or second week of April,? McClear explained. ‘And that’s when they’re going to give the blessing.?
McClear feels pretty confident Relume Technologies is going to be awarded the contract given the company wrote the specification sent out for bids and ‘they like our product.?
Although other companies are expected to bid on the project, McClear said Relume’s product is the only one being evaluated.
‘We’ll know in the next 30 days, but it looks like we’re going to be the specification for all of the street and decorative lighting,? he said. ‘There’s probably three or four other companies right now that actually have an LED street lighting product.?
Business is definitely booming for Relume Techologies. ‘It’s amazing the growth that we’re going through,? McClear said.
Last fall, the company got the contract to install LED lighting for all the McDonald’s restaurants in Canada. ‘We’ve probably done 100 sites,? McClear said.
As new restaurants are built, Relume installs LED lighting in the outdoor signage such as channel letters and the famous Golden Arches. The company is also responsible for replacing worn-out or damaged signage at existing Canadian McDonald’s locations with LED technology.
Relume also secured a contract with the City of Ann Arbor to convert all 1,046 of its decorative downtown street lights to LEDs. ‘They’re doing like 50 a week over the next three or four months to get all 1,000 done,? McClear said.
Relume is pursuing a city contract to convert all 6,000 of Ann Arbor’s cobra head street lights to LEDs.
Starting this month, Relume will be installing LED lighting at U.S. Cellular locations nationwide. As with the Canadian McDonald’s, Relume will be installing LED lighting at new locations and retrofitting the national wireless company’s existing stores.
‘We expect to do about 20-25 (locations) a month,? McClear said.
Even the Village of Oxford is thinking about going LED with its street lights. Four decorative LED lamp posts can be found lining Hudson St., while two cobra heads illuminate a portion of the southeast parking lot behind The Oxford Tap.
Relume Technologies is also preparing to possibly do an initial public offering (IPO) ‘in the next two or three years,? according to McClear. ‘That’s definitely the direction we’re going.?
An IPO is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. They’re often issues by smaller, younger companies seeking capital to expand.
‘It’s still too early to tell, but we’re going through the process of getting our financial structure and accounting (in order),? McClear said. ‘There’s a lot of scrutiny now when you try and take a company public, so we’re trying to get everything cleaned up in preparation for that.?
On the job front, Relume Technologies is helping the local economy When the Leader did a story profiling the company in September 2006, Relume employed 25 people.
It now has a staff of 35 and is expected to hire 20 more employees by the end of this year, according to McClear.
‘We’ve been on this track of doubling the size of the business every year and we don’t see that trend stopping,? he said.
For more information about Relume Technologies visit www.relume.com.