Derby-based Light Science Technologies, the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) technology and contract electronics manufacturing (CEM) group, has secured a contract with Zenith Nurseries with a total potential value of up to £13.84 million.
The project involves a consortium (Light Science Technologies Ltd, Zenith Nurseries and Morrish Engineering Limited) developing a cloche lighting and sensor technology system.
This product seeks to bring lighting and sensor technology to the controlled environment technology market for growers in polytunnel and glasshouse environments. The solution is intended to extend the use of the company’s nurturGROW Sensor to new market applications, such as agriculture fields.
The cloche lighting and sensor technology system is expected to be the first retrofittable, all-in-one lighting-sensing-automation rig providing year-round harvests for the grower across multiple plant varieties.
With an initial potential UK market of 4,000 industrial growers, producing over 300 types of field-scale and protected vegetable and salad crops, and tree and berry fruits, the solution will aim to improve productivity by increasing yields.
It will look to help growers by providing a possible solution to labour shortages and reduce the need for import substitution by extending the harvest window.
Meanwhile the UK Circuits and Electronics division has received new orders from Rentokil Initial plc totalling £580,900 which are expected to be delivered through the first half of FY 2022.
The forward order book for UK Circuits and Electronics Ltd currently stands at approximately £5 million.
Simon Deacon, CEO of Light Science Technologies Holdings plc, said: “The development of the LED grow lighting cloche/rig solution is an exciting progression in our product portfolio.
“We are delighted to be working with growers in the development of tailored supplementary hybrid lighting (LED and natural light) system providing targeted, actionable data insights of the nine cardinals of plant life and soil health, based upon the data collected.
“We already have good levels of visibility across both our divisions which provides a solid platform for growth. Importantly, we have a growing number of routes to increased commercialisation and believe that we are well placed to scale up rapidly.”
