Earnings Labs

LightPath Technologies, Inc. (LPTH)

Q3 2017 Earnings Call· Sun, May 7, 2017

$12.07

-4.96%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the LightPath Technologies Fiscal 2017 Third Quarter Results Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Please also note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dorothy Cipolla, CFO. Please go ahead.

Dorothy Cipolla

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Thank you, and good afternoon. Welcome to LightPath Technologies' fiscal 2017 third quarter financial results conference call. Our financial results press release was issued after the market closed today and posted on our corporate Web site. Today's conference call will be hosted by Mr. Jim Gaynor, President and Chief Executive Officer. Following management's discussion, there will be a formal Q&A session open to participants on the call. Before we get started, I would like to remind you that during the course of this conference call, we will be making a number of forward-looking statements that are based on our current expectations and involve various risks and uncertainties that are discussed in our periodic SEC filings. Although we believe that the assumptions underlying these statements are reasonable, any of them can prove to be inaccurate and there can be no assurance that the results will be realized. In addition, we will also be making a reference to certain non-generally accepted accounting principles or non-GAAP measures, for which you should refer to the appropriate disclaimers and reconciliations in our SEC filings and press releases. With that out of the way, it's now my pleasure to introduce Mr. Jim Gaynor, President and CEO of LightPath.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Thank you, Dorothy, and welcome to everyone who has joined us on the call today. We appreciate your interest in LightPath. I will open with an overview of operational results, highlight some recent developments, and then will turn the call over to Dorothy for a more in-depth review of our financials. Following that, we will open the call to your questions. The financial and operational results for our third quarter of fiscal 2017 clearly demonstrate LightPath is indeed a growth company with impressive execution of organic as well as exquisite strategy. More encouraging is that we are setting the stage for continued progress that will benefit from our operating leverage as we track towards accelerating growth in revenues and profitability. Now, please bear in mind that the quarter comparisons refer back to a period that did not include the ISP acquisition. Our financial results for the third quarter of 2017 reflect successful implementation of our strategies with revenue up 106%, consolidated gross margins strong at 50%, operating income up 500% to $1.3 million, and adjusted EBIDTA margin at 24% or $2 million for an improvement of 333%. Our core business, meaning LightPath without ISP grew 20% in the quarter; continued strong performance. ISP grew 22% better than expected performance, in light of all the one-time and new items such as non-cash warranty liability valuation, new costs for goodwill, and acquisition costs, a true underlying performance has been better than expectation. Along with the increase in profits, we continue to invest in research and development as well in global sales and marketing initiatives in a concerted effort to drive future growth. An example of this occurred after the end of the third quarter, which I believe bears discussion and it is indicative of our strengthening global brand for innovative world-class technology,…

Dorothy Cipolla

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Thank you, Jim. First, I would like to mention that much of the information we are discussing during this call is also included in the press release issued earlier today and on Form 10-Q which was also filed today. I encourage you to visit our website at lightpath.com and specifically the section titled investor relation. Before reviewing the financial performance and operation detail from our fiscal 2017 third quarter which ended on March 31. I want to remind everyone that the acquisition of ISP closed on December 21, 2016. Simultaneously with the closing of the acquisition, LightPath completed an underwritten public offering of $8 million of its Class A common stock. The company used the net proceeds from the offerings before a portion of the purchase price of the acquisition of ISP payable in cash, as well as to pay transaction expenses and other costs in connection with the acquisition. And this offering is the primary reason for the change in our outstanding share count from the end of the year. Now onto the results for the fiscal 2017 third quarter; revenue for the third quarter was $8.5 million, an increase of $4.4 million or 106% from $4.1 million last year. The increase from last year is attributable to $3.5 billion or 893% increase in revenue, generated by infrared products of $1.2 or 132% increase in sales of high volume precision molded optics or HVPMO lenses partially offset by $323,000 or 38% decrease in revenue from specialty products and a $30,000 or 17% decrease in revenues from non-recurring engineering or NRE projects. The decrease in revenues is generated by the specialty products group was due to the absence of approximately $272,000 of revenue generated last year for a final order of custom fiber collimator assembly. This specific product technology was…

Operator

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Matt Koranda of ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Hey, guys this is Brad Knoss [ph] on for Matt here.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Good morning. How are you?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Good. Congrats on the strong quarter. I just wanted to dig into HVPMO first here. I mean, we have seen some commentary from your customers that are in the telecom space that they recently seen a deceleration in the China Telecom build out, and they expected to continue at least for the near-term. Have you seen us through -- any of your order flow from those customers, and what are your thoughts on the near-term for the China Telecom build-out?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Well, we haven't seen this from our customers. As a matter of fact, our customers have been increasing their business with us in that sector. The current catalyst, they have been driving the market as we look at them remain in place. So you still have the major build-out of the metro core, the data center, interconnect as the cloud continues to get bigger. And the emerging world continues to consume bandwidth. And now this has been joined by the recent addition to demand for bandwidth created by [indiscernible] propensity; people now wanting to use video and pictures as part of their texting. So, this is increasing even more demand for bandwidth. So, what we are seeing is exactly, the opposite of that. And so, I think, we see that sector continuing to be strong and as far as we can see in the future we haven't seen any signs of it slowing down, at least in terms of our business.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Okay. Thanks for the color on that. Just going off that could you maybe just break-out or even just directionally what you see for the growth in China specifically versus maybe what the growth opportunities are here domestically, and sort of what that the quantification of that growth maybe?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Well, I mean, our China direct business has been continuing to grow steadily over the last five quarters. And that rate of growth that we have experienced is continuing. So I see that business continuing to grow quarter-over-quarter, and I think you know we don't see that changing at this point in time, and I think it has to do with a couple of things; one, we picked up a lot of business in the telecom sector, we are dealing with the higher-end customers in that sector, and those people seem to be maintaining their share and if not expanding it. So I see that continuing and that growth is part of our business remain strong.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

All right, perfect. And then also on HVPMO, it looks like the unit volume were down significant amount quarter-over-quarter with the revenue still holding relatively flattish. So can you just talk to the pricing environment that you are seeing on the HVPMO and what the puts and takes are there?

Dorothy Cipolla

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

The HVPMO unit volumes were up. Did you mean LVPMO, Q3 to Q3?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Yes, maybe I thought it was -- let me see. Okay, yes, maybe I had looked at the wrong HVPMO debt on that one then, but just I guess zooming out for a moment, looking at sort of the growth in HVPMO for sort of the long run business in China, or just in general for the product, there -- what sort of growth should we think about over the next few years? Do you think that this high rate can continue for over that longer period of time, or do you see more of a general ramp down in growth as the build out starts to materialize there?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Well, I think, the kind of growth rates that we have been experiencing in the underlying business are ranging in that around that 20% range that we had predicted previously and we don't see a change in that at this point in time.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Okay, perfect. And then maybe just one more here for me, in terms of the internal Chicagoan eyeglass production that you have what - I guess how much of that internal production sort of supplies or what percent of your material supply need, does that address for your base business as well as for ISP, it does address any for ISP and what percent could you see that supply ultimately getting to from your internal production?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Well, I think the capacity that we have there is sufficient to satisfy our internal molding requirements in the infrared sector. So we can do that, we will as business spikes or slows, that's able to adjust to that, I don't think there is a problem with that. So we will maintain multiple sources for that, so the capacity that we have installed is basically sufficient to satisfy the business from that standpoint, that Chicagoan product at this point in time is mostly, almost exclusively used for our molded products, ISP obviously is using other material system, that doesn't say that as we go forward, Chicagoan which is possible to be fabricated using turning techniques won't fit into that scheme of things as we go forward and I believe there is a growth opportunity there as well. So, currently, we haven't - we're not doing very much of that at all.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Okay. And then just on top of that real quickly here; the -- should we see sort of a margin impact from you, doing that internally and sort of what, how should we think about that margin benefit, if there is one?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Well, I think there is a couple of -- the reason that we did it was to have a guaranteed source of supply and a consistent material quality that is tuned for our particular process and it provides that, obviously you save the margin when you are using that material, in house material versus what you are paying to an outside vendor. So there is that advantage, so it has the advantage of cost savings as well as, it can contribute although it's hard to figure out what the current contribution is of some yield improvement, because of the consistency of the material that's specifically tuned to our process.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Okay perfect, thanks for all the color there. And I will step back in queue.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Joel [indiscernible] and Company. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Hi, thank you. First question actually is on the vertical market breakout, I added those numbers up to 92 unless I heard wrong 92%. So can you review those for me, please?

Dorothy Cipolla

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Right. For the third quarter, distribution income was 21%, defense and government was 12%, industrial was 45%, medical was 4%, telecom and wireless is 10% and then laser, thermal and instruments was 8%

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

So that's the one, I missed the last one. Okay, so it looks like the distribution or the telecom was actually down a little bit sequentially, I am wondering how much of the distribution catalog business actually goes to telecom is that maybe it wasn't there.

Dorothy Cipolla

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Well, I think one of the reasons that is slowing down, now we are adding a full quarter of ISP, so it's off a different base.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

No, I am sorry absolute numbers if you just do the math right.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

There is -- Joel, there is a portion that does run through distribution and we are looking at how we are going to break that out going forward, but we do have some rather large telecom customers that in Asia that run through a distributor and that business has always been accounted in that distribution portion.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Okay, it would be helpful, if you could break it out, the true color of what's happening in the telecom side of course, but obviously some broad based strength as you mentioned in the various markets in telecom, industrial tool and thermal products, I wonder if you could give us any key applications that you are seeing the strength in?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Well, I think on the industrial tool business that's a real awakening in China. The construction business that goes on there, I think last quarter we talked about some of the drivers of that business. One of the big ones being the investment that the Chinese government is making in there, transport infrastructure and in particular that means they are expanding their high speed rail line which is a big, big deal and the kind of doubling size of that from four main lines to eight and so that drives a lot of construction business. So I think that's probably driving the real awakening that we see in the industrial tool strong and the growth there. The telecom side is all the things that I have previously mentioned is just continuing and we are dealing with the premier equipment builders around the world. So our business is remaining strong as a result of that.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Right, and how about on the thermal products?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

On the thermal side, I think most of that advances really due to you know just the full impact of ISP for the quarter, as opposed to - last year it was like 10 days. So I think that's really what we see driving that market. Now having said that, the ISP business was a little bit stronger from a historical perspective on a growth rate this quarter than they have been previously, so we are seeing some of that and I think that maybe the result of the we have some very large annual type contracts that were booked earlier in the year, that we are now shipping. So that has an effect, positive effect on that revenue number.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

So given that do you, would you expect ISP's revenue to continue at levels from Q3 in the following quarter.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Well, I think we expect that we will be able to maintain current levels of business from ISP, yes.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

And your core business seems to be still growing, so that's.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Yes, like I said, our core business is growing in that 20% plus range and ISP, in this particular quarter grew 22% which is a little higher than there has been. So I think, we are seeing that strength and I think that's partially due to the - these large order now moving into full production, we were ramping them up in the previous quarter and now we are kind of hitting full stride.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

You made an interesting comment in the press release about the consumer electronics OEMs are you selling directly to any of those today.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

No, we are not, I mean that's just a market driver, I think at this point and there is - there could be some opportunity as we go forward into some end product type stuff, but.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Okay. That's all right, I kind of - when I read it, I may be read it like there was an opportunity there. But I understand.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

You keep looking for.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Okay, that's good. And then one more time could you give me the backlog number between the two segments, IR and optics.

Dorothy Cipolla

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Yes, so out of the 11.1 million, 6.7 is for infrared and 4.3 is for optical products.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Okay. Thank you. That's all I had.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

All right. Thanks, Joel.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Gene Inger of Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead.

Gene Inger

Analyst · Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead

Hi, Dorothy and Jim. I hope you can hear me, I am actually mobile and I could understand almost everything except some of the Dorothy's discussion about the warrant. In any event, first of all, congrats it looks like you guys have done a great job of transforming the company over the years and specially navigating the integration of ISP. Dorothy perhaps the question is for you, the summary of the warrant situation that once that is weight -- as Jim calls it, is lifted is that going to help enhance shareholder value down the road?

Dorothy Cipolla

Analyst · Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead

So we are taking the position that is really kind of a non-cash, our value is still there and this is kind of masking it, so that's why we are seeing some industrial numbers without it.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead

Enhance shareholder value is when it's gone we won't have the confusion that to create between GAAP reporting and what the fundamentals of the company are actually doing. I mean, this is the warrant liability all revolves around accounting that is investors against the fundamental transaction which basically has a very small chance of happening and as the life of those warrants become shorter, the chance of that happening becomes less and less and less as they only add.

Gene Inger

Analyst · Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead

Well, it sounds to me I guess where I am driving at obviously is weather the growth rate of the company being what it is, with the combined entities will be better reflected with perhaps a higher multiple on the shares, on your results once the warrants are out of the way.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead

I think if investors look at the adjusted numbers as we present them, they get a fair picture of what company is capable of doing. So you look at the adjusted EBIDTA, the adjusted EBIDTA net income, those numbers really take that warrant liability out of the equation which is why we are talking about them. Fortunately that is non-GAAP thing, so we have to do it in concert with the GAAP reporting but real way to look at the company is to look at those non-GAAP operating fundamental.

Gene Inger

Analyst · Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead

Well, obviously, what I am looking for is a trend both in growth and the evaporation of the warrant or minimization which enhance the shareholder value, obviously the most important thing for the share is you guys doing a good job of growing and running the company, which brings me to the question on, I am not sure you mean to say, when you said that ISP optics was growing at about what you would expect, a little bit better than you expected, if you extrapolate and you look forward in the years ahead, do you see new avenues of business at that end of the organization as well?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead

Well I think we do opportunity there, there is capability there as we get our hands around, what that is because our channel to market, synergies that we believe exist between the company's finding the technologies of the company between molded and turn product, we think there is ways to enhance and grow that business. Now in general, the commercialization of the infrared technology is what we're counting on is what is happening. So as we can offer more efficient and lower cost alternatives in the marketplace, infrared products, we enable that commercialization that creates market of the types of application that can be imagined using infrared technology in -- so currently we are doing very well in lower cost, handheld firefighting cameras, but as the cost comes down and there are number of commercial building sensors, like whole [indiscernible] feasible, replacement of smoke detectors, a whole range of commercial type application, using infrared technology [indiscernible] barriers will allow that business grow and then the ability. So we were somewhat limited molding technology in terms of sizes of lenses and what can be molded with material system. Now with ISP, that limitation is gone, we make larger lens with all the different materials into the processes we have available to us, all the different fabrication techniques for molding, the turning, the grind and polish, all of those ways to form lenses, different materials, host efficient manufacturing methods as we have all of them available to us and because we have operating facility in Europe, North America and Asia. So we can deliver that product and produce it, close region to the customer, where we want to done, I think that's the differentiator and the reason, we think that we can build that business.

Gene Inger

Analyst · Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead

Sounds good, can you elaborate just a bit on the -- for example the British contract that you signed and the Chinese contract, do you believe your facilities are adequate to ramp up or to handle any ramped orders of production in China specially as well as Orlando?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead

I guess, the short answer is yes, of the -- the contract with the optical encoder company in the U.K. absolutely no problem, we can handle that with the installed capacity that we have within Orlando and in -- that works very nicely, some of the work, that we are doing with the Chinese company, this has opportunity to become very large business over time, given the fact that we are still in the very early stages of development, development standpoint, absolutely no problem with what we can deliver at this point and as that business takes off and grows the potential are very, very large, but we will be able to ramp to do that.

Gene Inger

Analyst · Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead

And then finally -- thank you, last question is indirectly, I heard from one of our readers, on our Web site that one of your presentations at one point showed Apple as a customer, and yet -- and then it disappeared. I personally never saw that and I suppose Apple is very secretive about who their suppliers are, can you reflect on whether you did show them at point as a potential customer?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead

Well, we have done development work for a lot of these big companies, not only Apple, but [indiscernible] and others and it's simply that, so it's nothing that I would be too excited about at this point in time other than there is always that potential that what -- they try to develop a lot of things, a lot of different people and a lot of ideas, they never go anywhere, but they are always available, talk with them whenever they want us.

Gene Inger

Analyst · Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead

Of course, I'm thinking in terms of autonomous driving as I'm driving now and all these sensors let's say keeping me safe while listening to you guys.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead

All right.

Gene Inger

Analyst · Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead

All I would say is thank you and keep up the good job. I think you are pointing the company very much in the growth trajectory?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · Ingerlettter.com. Please go ahead

Okay. Thanks very much.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Chris Vojasky, a Private Investor. Please go ahead

Chris Vojasky

Analyst

Hello, and congratulations, again for good quarter for the combined business?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

You're welcome. Thank you.

Chris Vojasky

Analyst

So most of my questions were answered, but one thing I wanted to ask is that you showed a big growth in industrial but I think that was because you combined ISP and ISP wasn't there for the previous year's quarter, can you give us what the growth areas are kind of on pro forma basis assuming that you had ISP within the company in the last year's quarter?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

I guess, I'm trying to figure out let me. The underlying business of the company core businesses growing in that 20% range that's what it grew in this quarter.

Chris Vojasky

Analyst

So it's across the Board?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

I'm sorry.

Chris Vojasky

Analyst

So you would say that it's across the Board?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Well, yes I think from the core business point of view the visible optics. The telecom is a big driver of that growth. Telecom, Datacom and then the industrial tools that we do, which are all visible type products, which are involved in laser measurement things like store guides and laser levels and range finders and those kinds of devices, weapon sides, all are driving that type of business. So that business is developing and growing and it's around fire safety equipment and as we look forward we see the sensor market, autonomous vehicles could be a driver there as well as all these different sensors for things like driver awareness line spot detection, those kinds of things can be done using infrared technology as well as radar, so I think those types of things will be growing that business in the future. We really are looking at the IR business growing as the commercial applications expand and that's going to happen because the cost of these thermal imaging devices continues to come down. Those devices are coming down in cost as the sensing element come down in cost. They are coming down because there is un-cooled versions and also the standard size of the sensors is decreasing. I mean, the standard has already moved from 25 micron sensors down to around 12. So as a paper based process that cut sensor cost almost in half. So those things drive the cost down and as those sensors get smaller then they are able to use smaller optic, smaller optics fit into our molded technology, on molded infrared technology also offers a cost reduction versus traditional to medium term type product. So all of those things combine continue to drive these costs down and as they come down then the sensor business for things like as I said ATAC control or lighting control, pedestrian control, traffic signal controls all of those kinds of things become viable and the business grows. So that's what I think. I'm sorry, go ahead.

Chris Vojasky

Analyst

So is the HVAC control business ramping already?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

I think that's something yet to come, but I know you know, we talk to a number of different customers and they are all working on it and so I think it's something that you will start, yes.

Chris Vojasky

Analyst

Okay. And can you give us a feeling as to what the competitive environment is as all these things are ramping and optics in general are getting more popular, are you seeing more investment going into landfill servicing more competitors are you gaining market share or it's just regarding the market?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Well, I think - if we look at the visible side historically in our type of business and in the markets that we participate, it's driven by the growth of laser tiles, which historically grows 4%, 5%. We are growing much faster than that, which is an indication that we are gaining share. So and I know you know, there are some particular examples where I know we've taken business from a couple of our competitors, so we are gaining share. We are doing that because we have invested heavily in our manufacturing technology and our cost platforms are some of the lowest in the business. So to able to do that and still make very good margins. So that's one reason that we see a driving, I mean the business -- the optic business remains very fragmented, a lot of a small companies out there as you enter into different markets, you compete against the different group of competitors and they are many. So it's a competitive business, we've tried to position our company so that we have some advantage both from cost point of view as well as innovative type work that we do from a technology point of view and also where we operate, so that we have these operating facilities in the areas closest to where the customer wants the business and that gives us a big advantage, not only from that point of view but also from the point of view of servicing the customer and being in his market.

Chris Vojasky

Analyst

Okay. That's great color. And thanks for the good work and that's it from me.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

All right. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from [indiscernible]. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Good afternoon. Congratulations on the quarter.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Thank you.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

First off, I just wanted to make sure I understand this. First full quarter is ISP, given the 20% growth you mentioned without ISP. I'm backing into a contribution about $3.6 million, is that correct?

Dorothy Cipolla

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Yes.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Yes, I think that's a about right.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Okay. And so if we pull that out of infrared, you are what I'm going to call legacy infrared, is around 300,000 which is down a little quarter-over-quarter and down very slightly year-over-year and I know these are small numbers that the infrared was a few hundred thousand a quarter. So I don't want to make much of it but is that just a timing issue, do you expect that to kind of bounce back here in the June quarter, anything going on there?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Well, I think it's a developing. I mean, as the molded infrared business is developing business. So I think it has growth potential, you know, what we've seen is as particular projects get completed then there is some, what's the word I'm looking for?

Dorothy Cipolla

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Seasonality.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Seasonality, not really seasonality but just cycles of the business as projects come and go. So and particularly when you are dealing with small numbers that size of the business a percentage change or what they are I'm sure that's - I don't think it's anything that we are too worried about, it's from the standpoint of business looks like it has a bright future and it's growing and we will see it comeback, yes.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Okay. And I'm still assuming that given that the kind of low small numbers, it's probably fair to expect the highest growth rate on that business going forward?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

It's certainly an area that we expect to grow quite substantially. Yes.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Got it. Okay. And then, Jim you mentioned on the - in the script I think adding I'm going to mess this up, but I think you basically indicate you are adding sales reps and distributors worldwide, just for someone who is relatively new to story, can you quantify that a little bit more, can you tell us kind of how many reps you got? How many used to have? What's the delta year?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Well, we are up. We have two sales people direct people in China. We have two in [indiscernible] we have two in New York and we have five based out of associated with our core business and some of those are based here in Orlando and some of those are based regionally primarily on the west coast and then so we speak that up, we probably added three people in that organization just on a direct sales point of view as we reduced some of the geographic size of the territory, so that we could get more customer contact. So there is 11 people and both associated in the direct sales within the corporation now. LightPath before had like five, so like I mean that kind of the addition plus where we picked up with the ISP organization. Now we have about six more people associated in inside sales and sales and marketing type activity, so that gives us about 17 total in the sales and marketing organization that are directly. And then, in addition to that we have about 15 reps around the world that we use. And so that's been - that's kind of how we have those channels to market plus we sell directly to all of the major optical catalog houses, guys like four labs and admins and hard optics, those kind of people are that's a major - those are major customers for us.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Got it. And the 15 reps that are on the role, did that number change much, did you increase that recent or has that been fairly bad.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Definitely, I mean we've added. We are always trying to get the best guide, so we've added a few, we've changed a few so there is some churn there but essentially that's the kind of represent patent we have, yes.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Okay. And just last thing on sales here. How quickly do you start to see productivity out of new reps coming on?

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Well, I guess it depends on the area they are in. There is a certain learning curve for our product and it is a technical type sale for the most part, so it does take some time and that sometime is going to be six to nine months in doing and the other thing that we are heavily engaged in now as we consolidated the ISP sales organization and the LightPath sales organization, there is a lot of cross training going on between the product, so we are trying to get the ISP people familiar with the LightPath core products and vice versa. The LightPath people more involved in the capabilities that ISP brings to us and so there is a lot of learning going on right now for that. And that's - the exposure has been we've kind of dumped all the information out there, we've gone through the number of times but that's a repetitive process and still people get really good at it, so it takes some time. So that also takes probably that's probably also six months plus work that's going on. Now obviously we try to - we are continuing the effort - the pressure is on right to continue to grow the business.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Yes, absolutely, and it sounds like they've got a heck of any opportunity there in front of them. Dorothy, you mentioned backlog down towards the quarter and we talked about that the new ones of the larger orders, which I guess from ISP and just sort of the way they are booked. You also mentioned the contract they came in and kind of after the quarter closed, so just wondering if we should expect to see that backlog recover and start to grow again sequentially here in the June quarter.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Well, I would say the core business backlog did grow in the quarter. So we have a business came down with just as a result of the booking cycle in the interest side of the business. So it's mostly associated with ISP. So I think and that's been LightPath is evolving in its business. I mean, it has historically predominantly been in the order type, we take a order, we return it, there is a certain percentage of our business that we book in ship within a quarter and as we've gotten larger and we've involved in the business. We are now getting and still not that huge percentage but a bigger percentage of larger orders over lot their delivered over longer periods of time, so there is a shift in the way the backlog has been constructed historically versus what we are seeing today and so we are still trying to work our way through that, make sure we understand it and manage it properly. But this, the change in the backlog that we saw from last quarter to this quarter is entirely due to this large order that was booked in Q2 and now we are shipping off of it and that order should be removed you know, next year I mean again when we come to that cycle because it is a - in this schedule to be delivered over 12 months.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Got it. Okay. And just last thing from me, given your comments earlier in the concession one of the first questions asked about the sort of the china driven weakness that we are seeing elsewhere. It sounds like one thought as well it just doesn't hit like that yet and maybe there is a delay here, but it sounds like from in your order book in the commentary that and the physical you have within the backlog that you don't really expect that.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

I come, so I come from a telecom background prior to LightPath and I'm very aware of the variety in the cycle that that business segment goes through. We just haven't seen the weakness show up yet. We keep looking for it because, you've been around as long as I have in that business you know the cycle pretty well, it's long in the two by historical standard but the difference this time is the catalyst that are driving that business are multiple and the things driving those things is ever in satiable demand for expanding bandwidth continues. And now as I said this neither desire to put up video and as oppose to just typing letters and texting and that kind of stuff, that's the reason that Microsoft brought with an Instagram and SnapChat all these companies are getting bought by this big service providers because of that trend and it's a driver or bandwidth I mean it's -- I don't - I saw something it said it's the almost a 100 fold increase to put that video out there as if in bandwidth requirements compared to text. So it's a huge driver and I don't think it's fully hit yet, so that just becomes another catalyst on top of the three major ones that are continuing. So I think that the telecom business has some link to it and we certainly have not seen it. Now the other side of that is it could be the customer base that we are involved in, which is a very high-end customer base, I mean it's always the momentums, the [indiscernible], the neo-photonics those are all pretty good well established equipment suppliers into that space and so they are going to maintain their business you know it's for the longest and so I think we are well positioned from that standpoint. So it's something that we worry about, but so far from a standpoint of how we look at our forecast of what we expect to be happening and we have not seen any sign of weakness.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Got it. Well, great to hear and I appreciate all the color. Good luck with [indiscernible] organization.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Gaynor for closing remarks.

Jim Gaynor

Analyst · ROTH Capital. Please go ahead

Thank you. In conclusion, we appreciate the support of our shareholders and the dedication of our global and expanding team at LightPath. With our strength and presence around the world, we remained focus on our efforts to drive consolidated revenue growth and profitability, which benefits from the leverage in our business. Thanks again for participating on today's conference call and we look forward to speaking with you next quarter.

Operator

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.