Successfully rang the bell! The couple created a listed company

Another big sale pried open the door to the capital market.

As the main producer of mobile lighting products, China accounts for more than 60% of the global lighting products. As a result, some companies have relied on their rich domestic resources to expand overseas, becoming dark horses in the market and embarking on the path of IPO capitalization. Among them are Yaotai Co., Ltd., which has just been listed, and Olight, a billion-dollar seller with a 33-fold increase in revenue in 10 years, and other category leaders.

Another cross-border enterprise in East China successfully listed

There is another listed lighting company. Ningbo Yaotai Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yaotai Shares"), the parent company of the leader in the Amazon category, recently issued a "Reminder Announcement on Stock Listing", stating that the company has passed the review of the National Equities Exchange and Quotations and was listed on the basic layer of the New Third Board. The company's stock code is 874565.

Of course, being able to successfully enter the ranks of listed companies, Yaotai shares' performance is naturally strong. The financial report mentioned that in 2023, the company's revenue reached 490 million yuan and its net profit was 60.85 million yuan, a huge increase of more than 20 million yuan compared with the same period in 2022.

As a cross-border enterprise mainly engaged in outdoor lighting, Yaotai shares' products cover a variety of scenarios such as courtyard, smart, solar, and work environment lighting. The largest revenue contributors are the courtyard lighting and smart lighting businesses, with revenues of 264 million yuan and 136 million yuan respectively in 2023, accounting for more than 80% of the total revenue.

Its business is spread all over overseas, and Europe and North America are Yaotai’s main overseas battlefields. Its sales in 2023 exceeded 200 million yuan. It can be said that the company’s main income comes from these two regions (overseas revenue accounts for more than 90%).

Moreover, as the company vigorously develops its own-brand business model based on ODM, the influence of its own-brand business is also growing. The business of the two own-brands LUTEC and UME currently accounts for more than half, and they are mainly sold through platforms such as Amazon and Walmart as well as offline supermarkets.

On Amazon, Yaotai's main products are always ranked in the BSR. Its own brand LUTEC products not only have around 2,000 reviews, but also have high ratings. As shown in the figure below, the sales of the two products in the past month have both been over 1,000.

According to data cited by the Yiwu Cross-border E-Commerce Association, Yaotai Co., Ltd.'s revenue from Amazon in 2020 was US$4 million, which increased to US$12 million in 2022, equivalent to a three-fold increase in two years.

Under the ODM model, its partners include world-renowned building materials retailers such as France's Andoe, the United States' Lowe's, Home Depot, Costco and Kingfisher.

Different from the birth of a number of cross-border companies, Yaotai Co., Ltd. was just a wholly foreign-owned enterprise with shares held by foreign friends of the founding couple when it was first established in 2006. It was not until 2023 that the company was transformed into a joint-stock company and was actually controlled by Fang Yi and Zhang Liqing, who held 78.10% of the shares.

It is not difficult to see that in the lighting category, Chinese lighting products have a very high competitiveness. Not only Yaotai Co., Ltd., but also many cross-border retail giants were born, listed and grew with this foundation.

Many cross-border sellers rely on lighting products to sell well overseas

Olight, which was established only one year later than Yaotai , got on the fast track to listing one step earlier, and its parent company, Aolei Technology, successfully IPOed in November 2023. This brand, known as the ceiling of the lighting market, has successfully leapt from a newbie to a billion-level seller in nearly ten years.

In the early days of its establishment, Olight was a lighting factory that mainly produced for foreign countries. Later, it opened up B-end channels and established its own brand. This situation continued until 2015, when Olight transformed into an Amazon and independent website, and its products also covered mid-to-high-end flashlights, headlamps, gun lights, and peripheral accessories.

At this point, Olight also began its rapid growth. Just a few days after the launch of the independent website, it received orders worth 100,000 US dollars; in 2016, Olight's annual revenue exceeded 100 million yuan; in 2023, Olight's annual revenue exceeded 1 billion yuan, with overseas sales accounting for as much as 99%.

According to Similarweb data, Olight's independent website currently has over one million visits per month, with the majority of traffic coming from the United States, accounting for 91%. On Amazon, many of its products have made it onto the BS list, with monthly sales of over 1,000.

Govee, a new smart home brand invested by Anker , aims to export smart lamps and smart home appliances to overseas markets. After entering Amazon US in 2018, not only has its sales volume increased by a compound growth rate of more than 300% for three consecutive years, but its products have also entered the Amazon lighting category BSR list many times.

Just one smart light strip has achieved monthly sales of over 12 million U.S. dollars on Amazon. Govee's annual sales exceeded 200 million U.S. dollars in 2020, making it one of the billion-level global brands. The following year, it won a 40 million investment from Anker Innovations.

This has a lot to do with Govee's ability to create hits, which it has every once in a while. Take a smart neon rope light that was launched in March this year as an example. After 60 days, the sales volume reached 2,576 orders, with sales exceeding US$250,000.

Nitecore , also founded in 2007 , is a flashlight brand created by flashlight enthusiasts. With its strong R&D team, it has successfully won multiple design awards. It is the first professional lighting brand in history to win the Grand Slam of Global Industrial Design Awards. It is affiliated to Guangzhou Ximai Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. and its products are distributed in Europe, America, the Middle East and other regions.

On Amazon, Nitecore 's flagship products sell more than 1,000 units per month. It is understood that Nitecore not only maintains friendly cooperation with foreign outdoor chain stores, but also has cooperated with well-known events and brands such as HK100 and the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil . At present, its products have been extended to outdoor electrical appliances, photographic accessories and textile products.

The share is growing steadily, and the lighting market has great potential

A number of Chinese lighting companies have made great strides overseas, selling their products all over the world, and demonstrating the charm of Made in China. Data shows that in 2022 alone, the export value of Chinese lighting products reached US$55.496 billion.

North America, Germany and the European Union are the main export markets for Chinese lighting products, accounting for 50% of the total export volume of Chinese lighting products. Especially in the European and American markets, people are more willing to add various decorative lights to their homes, so there are always dark horse sellers who break through the siege. Previously, a user posted a video about LED candles, which was viewed over a million times overnight, and also led to a surge in related searches on Amazon.

In addition to daily and holiday decorations, the demand for outdoor sports and emergency lighting is also surging, driving some professional lighting products to become new favorites in the market. According to the export data in 2023, products in emerging smart segments such as smart lighting, automotive lighting, and outdoor lighting show good growth and development potential.

However, different markets have different consumption characteristics. For example, in the United States, where demand is relatively large, consumers are more willing to buy products with higher premiums for factors such as appearance design and brand effect. European consumers have a clear preference for high-quality and well-designed products.

On the other hand, driven by the concept of environmental protection, energy-saving lighting products are also favored by overseas consumers, with the sharp increase in shipments of LED lamps as the key point. Chinese overseas sellers can fill in the gaps based on market and consumer needs and rely on the strong domestic supply chain advantages while developing new segments.

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