Chris Larocca, President & CEO of Luminance Brands
California-based Luminance Brands – which already has a player in the ceiling fan market with its Concord Fans division – has announced it will be acquiring St. Louis-based Emerson Air Comfort Products from Emerson in order to “enable Luminance Brands to expand its product offering in the global ceiling fan market.”
In an interview with enLIGHTenment Magazine, Luminance Brands’ President & CEO Chris Larocca states that the company’s strategy is “to look at the markets we’re already players in and expand.” Of paramount importance is differentiating the individual brands in the Luminance portfolio within their respective marketplaces. For example, Concord Ceiling Fans is successful in its niche of multi-family & commercial construction while Hallmark, with its custom manufacturing ability, has been strong in the hospitality sector.
Emerson’s strong brand recognition among consumers and the lighting showroom community was particularly attractive to Larocca in growing Luminance’s portfolio. “We’ve been so impressed by the great folks at Emerson; they have some of the sharpest minds in the business. We respect the heritage of the company and want to keep the integrity of Emerson’s team,” he explains. For that reason, rather than moving the engineers and product development team to California, the staff will be relocated from the Emerson campus to a new office in the St. Louis area. “Rob Godlewski [general manager of Emerson Air Comfort Products] is joining our staff [in his current position] to keep continuity. All of the contact information will remain the same,” he explains. Along with the Emerson name, the acquisition includes tooling, designs, and inventory.
Having Emerson ceiling fans under the same corporate umbrella will provide Luminance with access to a broader segment of the decorative, consumer-oriented lighting community. In addition, Luminance plans to incorporate several of Air Comfort Product’s upcoming smart fan product lines into its BryteHome IoT-based lighting solutions division.
“We are excited to add Emerson’s Air Comfort Products group to the Luminance Brands family of companies,” Larocca comments. “Emerson introduced its ceiling fans to the market in 1895 and has remained a technology leader in the space. We look forward to continuing the tradition of innovating and delivering differentiated products to the market for many years to come.”
At next month’s Lightovation: Dallas International Lighting Show, both companies will be located in their existing showrooms in the Dallas Market Center, however, there are plans to integrate Emerson ceiling fans and Luminance Brands into one space in the future. According to Larocca, there are no immediate changes to Emerson’s rep force.
