February 23, 2023
[UPDATED] Acuity Brands Makes a Move in Charlotte
Charlotte office of statewide TEAM Lighting spins off to join forces with Acuity Brands
Three months after making a significant agent change in Atlanta, Acuity Brands is making a change in another major Southeastern U.S. lighting market. In coordinated memos to the Charlotte, North Carolina marketplace, Acuity Brands and TEAM Lighting Charlotte distributed memos to specifiers, distributors, contractors and other agents stating that the Charlotte office of the agent currently doing business as TEAM Lighting Charlotte will represent Acuity Brands effective Wednesday, May 24. This move replaces S.L. Bagby has been the longtime Acuity Brands representative dating back to the 1990’s – possibly earlier.
8:56 AM EST Feb 24, 2023:
After receiving more clarifications relating to the innerworkings of North Carolina lighting agents, we are updating this article to clarify and restate the latest events. We are adding the italicized text and removing other text and images that may have lacked complete clarity.
TEAM Lighting is a DBA among multiple independent lighting agent business entities across four territories in North Carolina. The group that goes by TEAM Charlotte has an official business name of B&M Donnelly, Inc. – a North Carolina corporation that was established in 2016 when Sean Donnelly became the owning principal of TEAM Charlotte.
So, the recent Acuity Brands announcement is coupled with an announcement that Donnelly’s TEAM Lighting Charlotte will be changing its DBA name – a sensible move since it is ending its statewide collaboration with the other TEAM locations, and now representing Acuity Brands in the western part of the state.
TEAM Lighting has long been a statewide lighting agent partnership with individually owned offices in four North Carolina markets; Charlotte, Greensboro, Durham and Greenville, North Carolina. Notably, the new Acuity Brands partnership has been forged only in the western part of the state, which includes Charlotte, Asheville and three counties in the greater metropolitan Rock Hill, South Carolina area.
TEAM Lighting Charlotte stated that in taking on Acuity Brands, that it is concurrently ending its Charlotte representation of multiple brands, including Current HLI (the former Hubbell Lighting) brands. Sources tell us that the Current HLI resignation happened only in the Charlotte market, and that the TEAM Lighting contracts for the other parts of the state are presently unaffected.
We reached out to Current HLI for comment and the company’s Chief Commercial Officer, Chip Taylor, indicated that “Current HLI is expecting to announce its representation plans to the North Carolina market in the near future.”
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TEAM Lighting Charlotte indicated that the agency will no longer be referred to as Team Lighting in Charlotte and will be announcing a new company name and brand identity on March 30.
For now, this is big news for TEAM Lighting in Charlotte. Soon-to-be free agent, S.L. Bagby, seems like a leading candidate to represent Current HLI in the Queen City, but don't rule out a Current HLI/GLI consolidation or other options.
