Introduction

 

Open letter from the founder team

With our mission of "sticking to the sea, side by side with fishermen", with our understanding of the financial burden caused to fishermen by their significant spending on fuel oil used for lighting in each sea-going trip, we strive each day to accompany fishermen to solve both financial and sustainability issues in the fishing industry in specific ways.

Stemming from our special bonding and affection with the fishermen of Vietnam, our  admiration for their bravery and hardship endurance, we feel heartbroken that so far advance technologies has not helped you reduce current burden of excessive fuel oil costs. Even though there are companies that make LED lights for fishing vessels, their products have high prices, low level of brightness and inferior durability. In Vietnam’s neighboring countries, including ASEAN countries, China and Korea, nowhere do we see LED lighting technology being widely used to replace high-voltage metal halide bulbs at reasonable cost to fishing vessel owners.

With the number of fishing vessels using metal halide bulbs in Vietnam alone in the tens of thousands, each sea-going night a vessel consumes from a few hundred to nearly a thousand liters of fuel oil at great expense. Every night, fishing vessels release tens of thousands of tons of exhaust gas, polluting the marine environment, warming the atmosphere, and destroying the marine ecosystem. We see it an urgent problem that needs to be solved immediately without further delay.

What’s more, the level of post-fishing seafood wastage is simply too much. This wastage is mostly due to poor conditions of refrigeration, lack of on-sea Instant Quick Freezing (IQF) facilities, improper packaging and preservation.

On the other hand, consumers in big cities, like Hanoi, Vietnam (population: 10 million) have to buy unhygienic seafood that is not properly preserved. IQF preserved seafood is expensive, available in limited quantity and is practically beyond reach of the average consumer.

If these situations continue to happen without a reliable and sustainable solution, it is clear that in just 10 to 15 years the marine fishing industry will face a serious crisis, with marine resources irreversibly depleted. Millions of people with jobs in fisheries will be affected.

Those are burning issues that drive us to bind our work, our life single-mindedly to that of the fishing industry and the Vietnamese fishermen.

 

 

MISSION

The 111 Company researches and delivers technological solutions to solve operations and sustainability problems in the fishing industry, directly contributing to improving livelihood of fishermen and conserving marine ecosystems, by improving both the fishing process and seafood preservation process.

 

2020 VISION

Become a TOP 3 leading providers of technology solutions to the fishing  industry in Vietnam.

 

In the next 10 years from 2020 to 2030, our company will grow in two phases:

 

Phase 1: focus on providing effective and efficient solutions to reduce fuel consumption in marine fishing, making 111 LED lights for fishing vessels the nation’s best-seller product in its category.

Phase 2: beyond lighting, develop second focus on superior solutions for preserving seafood, enabling direct ship-to-consumer seafood products.

 

CORE VALUES

Dedication – Reputation – Efficiency – Creativity – Breakthrough technology

 

THE 111 LED LIGHT DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY (2014-ONGOING)

The journey started with the LED 111 founder team’s burning passion to create a reasonably-priced, energy-saving LED lamp that can replace the metal halide 1000W lamp that consumes thousands of liters of fuel oil on each fishing vessel all over Vietnam.

The big challenge for the engineering team is that the metal halide 1000W lamp, although high on fuel oil consumption, produces bright light that is effective at attracting fish, making fishermen to trust it completely. Back in 2014, LED technology if used in conventional lamp design of 300-500W will result in a very bulky, while the light brightness still cannot match to that of metal halide lamps.

Not to be deterred by this challenge, the LED 111 founder team decided to go out to sea with the fishermen, despite all the debilitating sea sickness and dizziness. The sea-going trips were physically challenging experience for the founder team; however, they gained valuable insights and knowledge about the customs and fishing habits of fishermen and especially inspired them to dream about harnessing the endless sources of renewable energy of the sea (solar, wind and beyond).

 

The founder team then came up with a groundbreaking design that takes advantage of sea water to cool the LED chip in the lamp. By doing so, the LED could minimize the lamp bulkiness to a minimum, while increasing the lamp power to 500-700W. By 2015, the first 3 ships in Hau Loc, Thanh Hoa  province started a new trend by pioneering the adoption of 111 LED lamps. The vessels achieved very positive results in fish catch and fuel oil saving. The light has deep illumination and turns on immediately. For the first time, a fishing boat LED light model was piloted successfully in Thanh Hoa province.

 

However, 111 LED lights in 2015 still had a major drawback: the price is still high, with each 500W lamp selling for up to 7-10 million/unit. This price was too high when compared to the price of a super metal halide lamp, at 2.5 million VND. The road to widespread adoption was bumpy and required significant sales efforts.

In 2017, thanks to the development of improved LED technology and the continuous improvement efforts of the LED 111 engineering team, a completely new 500W LED light model for fishing boats was developed. The design used an IP68 waterproof fan to dissipate heat and a reflector design on the top half to take advantage of the excess light thrown into the sky. With this design, key disadvantages of the previous model were solved. For the first time, LED lights had 1.7 times the illuminance of metal halide 1500W lights and the radiance reached 120 lumens, with a light weight of only 5.7kg and a reasonable selling price of less than 5 million VND/unit.

This new model of 111 LED was quickly accepted by fishermen in Nghe An province and has created a strong trend among fishing vessels in Northern Vietnam to convert from metal halide lights to LED lights. With LED lights widely used on fishing vessels, vessel owners saw 40% fuel oil saving while increasing fishing productivity. The LED 111 team continues to improve existing models and release new models. By 2022, LED 111 lights have become the most popular, most widely used brand on Vietnamese fishing vessels and have started to gain the trust of fishermen in Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar.

Our team continues to accompany fishermen in Vietnam and beyond in their fishing journey and produce more optimal light models, helping fishermen to become more prosperous and sustainable.