MANITOWOC, Wis., March 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orion Energy Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:OESX) (Orion Lighting), a provider of enterprise-grade LED lighting and energy project solutions, today announced that CEO Mike Altschaefl and CFO Bill Hull will present at the Sidoti Spring Conference in New York City on Thursday, March 29, 2018 at 1:30pm ET. Management will also be available for 1-on-1 meetings with investors throughout the day.

The conference is taking place at the New York Marriott Marquis hotel, 1535 Broadway (between 45^th & 46^th Streets) New York, NY 10036.

Webcast& Replay URL: http://www.investorcalendar.com/event/26728

Investors interested in attending the conference should visit www.sidoti.com or contact Caitlyn Adams at cadams@sidoti.com.

Orion at a Glance:

Expanded Sales Reach and Cost Reduction Program:

Led by Mike Altschaefl, named CEO in May 2017, Orion has made solid progress toward its goals of:

1) Positioning Orion for long-term growth in the LED lighting market; and
2) Reducing ongoing overhead expenses to accelerate its path to improved financial results. 

On the sales front, Orion has substantially expanded its national sales reach by forming a network of approximately fifty agencies to build upon Orion’s existing direct sales effort focused on a number of major national accounts. Orion estimates that its agent sales base enables it to engage with roughly 77% of potential LED lighting opportunities up from its prior direct sales reach of about 13%.

On the cost side, over the past year Orion has reduced annual overhead by approximately 20% or $6M, savings which should be fully reflected in fiscal 2019 beginning April 1, 2018. Management’s goal is to advance Orion to breakeven, on an EBITDA basis, by its second quarter ending September 30, 2018, while also working to drive sales growth from its expanded market reach.

About Sidoti & Company:
Sidoti & Company provides institutional equity research on small- and micro-cap equities and hosts biannual emerging growth conferences. Sidoti & Company aims to build interest and visibility into the most overlooked, undervalued segment of the equity market, uniting publicly-traded companies with quality investors.

About Orion Energy Systems
Orion is a provider of enterprise-grade LED lighting and energy project solutions. Orion manufactures and markets connected lighting systems encompassing LED solid-state lighting and smart controls. Orion systems incorporate patented design elements that deliver significant energy, efficiency, optical and thermal performance that drive financial, environmental, and work-space benefits for a wide variety of customers, including nearly 40% of the Fortune 500.

Safe-Harbor
Certain matters discussed in this press release, including under the headings “Q3 Highlights,” “Updated Financial Outlook,” “CEO Commentary,” and “Resolution of Litigation” are "forward-looking statements" intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements may generally be identified as such because the context of such statements will include words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would" or words of similar import. Similarly, statements that describe our future plans, objectives or goals are also forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ materially from those expected, including, but not limited to, the following: (i) our ability to achieve our expected revenue growth, gross margin, and EBITDA objectives in fiscal 2018 and beyond; (ii) our ability to achieve profitability and positive cash flows; (iii) our levels of cash and our limited borrowing capacity under our revolving line of credit; (iv) the availability of additional debt financing and/or equity capital; (v) our increasing emphasis on selling more of our products through third party distributors and sales agents, including our ability to attract and retain effective third party distributors and sales agents to execute our sales model; (vi) our ability to develop and participate in new product and technology offerings or applications in a cost effective and timely manner; (vii) our ability to manage the ongoing decreases in the average selling prices of our products as a result of competitive pressures in the evolving LED market; (viii) our ability to manage our inventory and avoid inventory obsolescence in a rapidly evolving LED market; (ix) our lack of major sources of recurring revenue and the potential consequences of the loss of one or more key customers or suppliers, including key contacts at such customers; (x) our ability to adapt to increasing convergence in the LED market; (xi) our ability to differentiate our products in a highly competitive market; (xii) the deterioration of market conditions, including our dependence on customers' capital budgets for sales of products and services; (xiii) our ability to complete and execute our strategy in a highly competitive market and our ability to respond successfully to market competition; (xiv) our increasing reliance on third parties for the manufacture and development of products and product components; (xv) our ability to successfully implement our strategy of focusing mainly on lighting solutions using LED technologies; (xvi) the market acceptance of our products and services; (xvii) our ability to realize expected cost savings on the timetable and amounts expected from our cost reduction initiatives; (xviii) adverse developments with respect to litigation and other legal matters pursuant to which we are subject, (xix) our failure to comply with the covenants in our revolving credit agreement; (xx) our fluctuating quarterly results of operations as we focus on new LED technologies and continue to focus investing in our third party distribution sales channel; (xxi) our ability to recruit, hire and retain talented individuals in all disciplines of our company; (xxii) price fluctuations, shortages or interruptions of component supplies and raw materials used to manufacture our products; (xxiii) our ability to defend our patent portfolio; (xxiv) a reduction in the price of electricity; (xxv) the cost to comply with, and the effects of, any current and future government regulations, laws and policies; (xxvi) potential warranty claims in excess of our reserve estimates; (xxvii) our inability to timely and effectively remediate any material weaknesses in our internal control of financial reporting and/or our failure to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting and (xxviii) the other risks described in our filings with the SEC. Shareholders, potential investors and other readers are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements made herein are made only as of the date of this press release and we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. More detailed information about factors that may affect our performance may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at http://www.sec.gov or at http://investor.oriones.com/ in the Investor Relations section of our Website.

Investor Relations Contacts
Bill Hull, CFO                                                  William Jones; Tanya Kamatu
Orion Energy Systems, Inc.                            Catalyst Global
(312) 660-3575                                               (212) 924-9800
                                                                        oesx@catalyst-ir.com

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Source: Orion Energy Systems, Inc.