Wales Manufacturing Stephen Farrell

PhotonStar LED, which has manufacturing facilities in Tredegar, has reduced pre-tax losses in its full-year results despite "significant pressure" on its traditional lighting business.

The AIM listed company reported a pre-tax loss of £1.43m for the year ended 31 December 2016, down from £3m in 2015. However, revenue fell to £5.3m from £6.9m the year before.

Chief executive James McKenzie said the company's traditional lighting business had been placed under "significant pressure" during the year, as a result of "deteriorating economic conditions in the Middle East, significant competitor price reductions and uncertainty due to Brexit".

However, cost savings were made during the year and PhotonStar is now said to be a "leaner business".

The company's focus was on the delivery of its Halcyon product range to customers for one off projects and paid for trials.

McKenzie added: "In 2016, steady progress was made in transitioning the group into becoming a retrofit connected lighting and building management business. We have installed a number of trials in a variety of sectors.

"The group experienced challenging trading conditions during the second half of 2016, which continued during the first quarter of 2017 but following the company's recent participation at the IBM InterConnect 2017 Conference management have felt more confident about the market potential for the halcyonPRO2TM and its halcyon CloudBMS platform."

Following the year end PhotonStar raised proceeds of £465,000 through a share placing.