Lighting Industry

In late January, LightNOW posted about signs of trouble ahead for the Multifamily real estate market. There are now indications that trouble has arrived. Apartment loans at least 30 days past due or in non-accrual have jumped 81%. Banks are increasingly taking losses on apartment loans. This will likely lead to distressed selling, as well [...]

  Here are 7 time-tested approaches to growing a commercial lighting business: Create a go-to-market plan to add a new product category, service, or to expand into a new channel of distribution. Try lead generation (lead gen) using digital automation. Produce a monthly press release and distribute it to your primary customer trade press. Produce [...]

  Tucked away in a cozy corner of the lighting industry is a company that specializes in lighting up a cozy corner of your home or office. The product is the cornerWall Lamp by cookieLight. CornerWall Lamps are wall sconces designed to be installed in a corner between two walls, and they primarily produce indirect [...]

  More midstream utility lighting rebates are becoming available through online commercial lighting sales. Two examples are EncentivEnergy’s UtilityGenius Commercial Storefront, as well as Bulbs.com. Commercial Storefront is the latest service from EncentivEnergy, the company behind UtilityGenius, an online utility rebate finder / searchable database. Commercial Storefront has negotiated arrangements with ConEd (in NYC) and [...]

  I had the pleasure of sitting down with Geoff Ling, Managing Director at Merrimack Group, at LEDucation, to talk about his predictions for M&A trends, looking forward. Merrimack Group provides M&A services to the lighting industry. Shiller: What are the overall trends that you’re seeing in lighting industry M&A, big picture? Ling: I started [...]

  High Point Market is certainly one of the oldest and most established in the furniture industry. The tradeshow dates back to when North Carolina was THE center of the furniture manufacturing industry. Of course, that all changed with globalization and the rise of Asian furniture manufacturing. It’s admittedly been many years (pre-pandemic) since I [...]

  Lamps Plus, the largest lighting showroom chain in North America has announced it will close down Pacific Coast Lighting, its 45-year-old wholesale brand of primarily portable luminaires / lamps, later this Spring. Pacific Coast Lighting primarily sold to department stores, furniture stores, and hotels. Pacific Coast Lighting and Lamps Plus both have a Kathy [...]

    The Dallas Market Center is launching a new international expo and support initiative to promote nearshoring production services for the gift, home furnishings, and fashion accessories industries. December 9-11, 2024, the expo will take place at Dallas Market Center, to connect brands, vetted factories, and supply chain providers from Mexico & Latin America. [...]

I’ve recently written about how dual crises in the Suez Canal / Red Sea and the Panama Canal have created chaos, rising cargo prices, and delaying supply chains. More on these dual canal crises can be found here. Now there is some good news for global shipping. As the pandemic eased, global shipping demand outstripped [...]