Lighting industry sees key acquisitions and collaborations | Lighting Report
Two acquisitions in the lighting industry took the spotlight recently. The first was Hudson Valley Lighting Group’s acquisition of Sonneman, which HVLG said will boost its profile in the configurable LED category and strengthen its offering in the residential-commercial crossover space.
The second is Gross Electric’s acquisition of Indiana Lighting‘s two stores. In an interview with Home Accents Today, Gross Electric President Laurie Gross said she feels passionately about the survival of lighting showrooms and the importance of succession planning for family-owned businesses. Gross Electric was founded by Gross’ grandfather in Toledo, Ohio, 115 years ago.
Indiana Lighting was founded 50 years ago, and Jean Leeper, whose husband Bob’s father started the business in 1973, agreed. “The continuation of the business was very important to us,” she said. “We saw other people acquire lighting showrooms and they were not always managed well. We wanted the right person to continue the business and [keep] the employees.”
Jean Leeper first met Gross at an American Lighting Association conference years ago. “I think highly of Laurie for her business skills and acumen,” she said.
Leeper joined the family business in 1989 when her children were grown, and she remembers when inventory and sales were all done manually and lighting showrooms were the main source of commercial and residential lighting business. She recalled the piles of thick manufacturer catalogs she used to receive and noted what she felt was a decline in distinctive looks once the industry moved manufacturing to China.
Leeper was reluctant to retire completely and wanted to continue working and maintain the longstanding relationships she has with many customers. Gross agreed. “Now I am an employee,” Leeper said, and she sounded completely pleased with the prospect.
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British lighting brand Pooky is collaborating with GP&J Baker on collection of lampshade designs based on the British textile maker’s 140-year-old archives, including previously unreleased patterns from the 18th and 19th centuries.
“It was a real privilege to visit GP&J Baker’s archive and be able to explore designs that had never seen the light of day,” said Pooky’s chief creative officer, Jo Plant. “This collection feels particularly special because it shines a light on the hidden gems of their heritage. Our team had so much fun bringing them to life the Pooky way—with joyful colors and bold trims.”
The collection centers around the large-scale Bokhara Ikat, a print that has lived in GP&J’s archive since the 1900s. Pooky has preserved its grand scale, which creates an abstract, almost painterly effect when gathered onto their first-ever drum-shaped shade. The versatile Tuffley prints were specially developed using colors from the Bokhara range, allowing customers to use Bokhara on larger statement pieces while picking out favorite colors in Tuffley for smaller shades.
