January 17, 2024

A Year After: The Chicago Lighting Market's Major Shifts

Forced Out: Where did all the Force Partners lines go?

In late 2022, the Chicago professional lighting market began to experience a significant upheaval. This was initiated when Cooper Lighting Solutions and Force Partners announced a “joint decision” to part ways, which was later confirmed to be Cooper Lighting’s decision to not re-up Force Partners’ expiring contract.

Such changes in the lighting industry are not without consequences. Customers including specifiers, distributors and contractors often find themselves needing to adapt to new contacts and potentially alter long-standing brand preferences.

Following the split with Cooper Lighting, Force Partners endeavored to sign on new replacement lines including LSI Industries, NICOR Lighting, TCP, and Avi-on Labs. However, despite these efforts, the agency announced its permanent closure in April 2023. This unexpected closure left a void in the market and raised questions about the future direction of the lines they represented. The closure also likely led to an awkward phone call when LSI Industries reunited with the agent it had terminated months earlier, Illumination Technology Group.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Cooper Lighting's New Venture

Cooper Lighting's move to partner with The Lighting Digest, a new startup lighting agent, was met both locally and nationally with a mix of intrigue and skepticism. The heightened attention stemmed from The Lighting Digest's connection to Jim Williams, the then-President and CEO of Chicago’s leading agency, KSA Lighting & Controls, who is also the husband of Ashley Williams, the sole principal of The Lighting Digest.

Despite the controversy surrounding the Cooper Lighting agent principal's marital ties to the CEO of Chicago’s Acuity Brands agency, The Lighting Digest has successfully acquired a variety of reputable ancillary lines that complement Cooper Lighting's offerings, while also hiring over 30 local lighting people along the way.

The Domino Effect of Line Movement

The closure of Force Partners and the establishment of The Lighting Digest led to significant line movement within the market. While some of this movement was directly related to these events, other shifts, like Coronet moving to PG Enlighten, doesn’t appear to be a direct result of the fallout from Force Partners.

The changes observed in 2023, though substantial, still pale in comparison to the massive industry shift that occurred in Chicago in 2016. That year saw a long list of major brands, including Juno Lighting, Hubbell Lighting, Cree Lighting, Philips/Lightolier, RAB Lighting, Watt Stopper and Cooper Lighting, changing hands.

Given the significant impact of these more recent changes, we tracked where nearly 50 of the lines previously held by Force Partners have migrated after the Cooper Lighting departure. Over a dozen lines are either still in limbo or did not respond to our inquiries before press time. Interestingly, we didn't identify any Force Partners lines that teamed up with KSA Lighting & Controls.

The Lighting Digest - 16 lines