MANITOWOC, Wis., Sept. 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orion Energy Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: OESX) (Orion Lighting), a provider of enterprise-grade LED lighting and energy project solutions, today provided an update on order activity which is currently trending ahead of the Company’s 10% revenue growth goal for the fiscal 2019 year ending March 31, 2019. In total, Orion has secured over $11 million in recent orders and letters of intent from major national accounts.

As anticipated, business from major automotive manufacturers continues to show strength, with over $8 million in orders and letters of intent for turnkey LED lighting retrofit projects having been secured over the last several weeks. These projects are currently slated to be completed and booked as revenue principally in the third and fourth quarters of fiscal 2019. Automotive industry business is currently running modestly ahead of full year revenue expectations of $14M in fiscal 2019.

Additionally, Orion recently secured contracts and letters of intent for approximately $3 million in turnkey LED lighting retrofit projects for over 35 U.S. government facilities.

Orion’s industry-leading ISON™ High Bay LED fixtures continue to be an important contributor to the Company’s national account sales activity, along with the Company’s LDR^® LED retrofit lighting systems designed for fast, efficient replacement of standard-sized, in-ceiling “troffer” fixtures.

Mike Altschaefl, Orion’s CEO, commented, “The pace of Orion’s order bookings has accelerated in recent weeks and we are now running well ahead of last year. Based on this activity, we are increasingly comfortable that we will achieve and possibly exceed our full year 10% revenue growth goal – with much of our improvement weighted toward the second half of the year. We are seeing particularly strong traction from national accounts, where we typically find the greatest engagement in Orion’s value proposition, which is focused on quality, service, and energy and cost savings.

“We are also seeing continued improvement in our agent driven sales activity as well as bookings through Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) and resellers.”

About Orion Energy Systems, Inc. (www.orionlighting.com)
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 Statement 
Certain matters discussed in this press release, including under the headings “Highlights,” “Updated Financial Outlook,” and “CEO Commentary,” 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 2019 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.

Twitter:         @OrionLighting and @OrionLightingIR
StockTwits: @Orion_LED_IR

Orion Sales
Josh Kurtz, SVP Sales
Orion Energy Systems, Inc.
(920) 892-5702

Media & Investor Relations
Bill Hull, CFO 
Orion Energy Systems, Inc.  
(312) 660-3575 

William Jones; Tanya Kamatu
Catalyst IR
(212) 924-9800 or oesx@catalyst-ir.com   

Source: Orion Energy Systems, Inc.