Orion Energy Flips the Switch from Turnaround to Profitable Growth

MANITOWOC, Wis. – June 04, 2026 – Orion Energy Systems, a company that not long ago was navigating significant financial losses, today presented a picture of stark transformation. Reporting its full-year results for fiscal 2026, the provider of LED lighting and EV charging solutions announced a return to positive adjusted earnings and projected double-digit revenue growth for the year ahead, signaling that a painful but necessary overhaul may finally be bearing fruit.

For its fiscal year ending March 31, 2026, Orion posted revenue of $86.3 million, an 8% increase from the prior year. More strikingly, it achieved an adjusted EBITDA of $2.2 million, a dramatic reversal from a $2.9 million loss in fiscal 2025. The fourth quarter marked the company’s sixth consecutive period of positive adjusted EBITDA, a metric closely watched by investors as a proxy for core operational profitability. This turnaround, orchestrated under the leadership of CEO Sally Washlow, who just completed her first year at the helm, suggests a fundamental shift in the company's trajectory.

“The results we are reporting today—highlighted by our sixth straight quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA—validate an observation I have made previously: Orion is demonstrably on a profitable growth path,” Washlow stated in the company’s press release. Her confident tone bookends a year dedicated to what the company calls a “structural reset,” moving Orion from a fight for survival to a position of expansion.

The Anatomy of a Turnaround

The road to this recovery has been fraught with challenges. Just a few years ago, in fiscal 2023, Orion reported a staggering net loss of over $34 million and a significant revenue decline. The company was grappling with project delays and reduced business from a key customer, forcing a hard look at its operations. Fiscal 2024 saw revenue rebound, but profitability remained elusive.

The strategic pivot appears to have gained traction in the latter half of fiscal 2025, with Washlow’s arrival marking a clear inflection point. The company’s financial reports reveal a disciplined focus on the bottom line. For every quarter of fiscal 2026, gross margins exceeded 30%—a level of performance the company noted it had “not previously seen.” This was achieved through a combination of better pricing and stringent cost controls across its LED lighting, EV charging, and maintenance divisions.

While total operating expenses for the year decreased to $29.7 million from $30.8 million, the real story is in the margin expansion. In the fourth quarter alone, gross margin jumped to 37.0%, a nearly 10-point increase from the 27.5% reported in the same quarter last year. This suggests Orion is not just selling more, but selling smarter—securing more profitable projects and managing its supply chain and installation costs with greater efficiency.

“In the space of a year, we have gone from a turnaround to a growth company,” Washlow said. “We have maintained our Nasdaq listing, strengthened our balance sheet, completed our Voltrek earnout payments, extended our credit agreement and embarked on a demonstrable trajectory of profitable growth and margin expansion.”

The Green Energy Gambit

Orion operates at the intersection of two powerful trends: the push for energy efficiency and the electrification of transportation. Its core business, LED lighting, is benefiting from a widespread commercial and industrial upgrade cycle, as businesses replace outdated systems to cut energy costs. Orion’s LED lighting revenue surged 86% in the fourth quarter compared to the prior year, driving much of the period’s growth.

However, the company’s foray into the electric vehicle charging market reveals the volatility inherent in the green transition. While the long-term outlook for EV infrastructure is explosive, the project-based nature of the business can lead to lumpy and unpredictable revenue. In the fourth quarter, Orion’s EV charging revenue fell 61% year-over-year to $2.3 million, a decline the company attributed to the variable timing of large projects. For the full year, the segment’s revenue was down 15%.

This is the gap between how the green revolution should work—a smooth, upward curve—and how it actually does: in fits and starts, dependent on funding, policy, and customer readiness. Rather than being deterred, Orion appears to be diversifying its clean-tech portfolio. The company recently rolled out an on-site battery storage system, with initial deployments in California, and is actively targeting the booming AI data center market, where its energy-efficient lighting can help manage the immense power demands of modern computing.

A Closer Look at the Numbers

While the headline figures are impressive, a core tenet of accountability requires looking beneath the surface, particularly at non-GAAP metrics like adjusted EBITDA. Orion, like many companies, uses this figure to show its performance without the noise of certain expenses. For fiscal 2026, the company’s net loss was $3.2 million, but after adding back interest, taxes, depreciation, and other adjustments, it arrived at a positive adjusted EBITDA of $2.2 million.

What are those adjustments? In the fourth quarter, they included $1.7 million for the final earnout payment related to its 2021 acquisition of EV charging company Voltrek and a $1.1 million non-cash write-off of solar assets. While these are legitimate adjustments that don't reflect day-to-day operations, they are real costs that impact the company’s financial history. The finality of the Voltrek earnout, however, removes a recurring and complex liability from the balance sheet, simplifying the financial picture going forward.

Perhaps a more telling sign of stability comes from the company’s balance sheet and its relationship with its lenders. Orion ended the fiscal year with improved working capital and recently extended its revolving credit facility to 2030. This extension is a powerful vote of confidence from its financial partners, suggesting they believe the turnaround is not a temporary blip but a sustainable shift in financial health.

Navigating a Competitive Future

Looking ahead, Orion is projecting confidence. The company reiterated its expectation for fiscal 2027 revenue to land between $95 million and $97 million, which would represent growth of about 12%. It also expects to continue delivering positive adjusted EBITDA. This forecast is underpinned by a project backlog that has grown to $30 million, a $13 million increase from the previous year, providing a solid foundation of future work.

This backlog includes a diverse array of projects, from a $42 million renewal of a maintenance contract for a major big-box retailer to a $10 million series of EV charging installations across the country. This diversification is key to mitigating the risks that have plagued the company in the past, such as over-reliance on a single large customer.

The path forward is not without obstacles. Orion operates in highly competitive markets against larger, more established players. The company’s own filings acknowledge risks from foreign competition, supply chain fluctuations, and the variable pace of EV infrastructure adoption. The challenge for Sally Washlow and her team will be to execute on their growing pipeline with the same financial discipline that fueled this year’s recovery. For now, the Manitowoc-based firm has successfully rewritten its narrative from one of struggle to one of strategic growth.