August 7, 2024
Signify and Lutron Reps Join Forces in Southern California
Forman & Associates merges with Western Lighting & Energy Controls in L.A. and San Diego
Western Lighting & Energy Controls and Forman & Associates have merged to create LINX Lighting & Controls, forming one of the larger lighting representative agencies in Southern California covering three traditional lighting markets – Los Angeles, San Diego and Central Coast.
The merger combines Western's portfolio of over 90 lighting brands with Forman's representation of more than 100 brands, spanning commercial, industrial, and entertainment lighting solutions. LINX Lighting & Controls will maintain offices in Van Nuys, Costa Mesa, and San Diego to service the region. This geographic spread allows the new entity to provide comprehensive coverage across Southern California's diverse markets.
Key Partnerships and Product Offerings
Western Lighting & Energy Controls brings its longstanding partnership with Lutron, the worldwide leader in lighting controls. Other significant brands in Western's portfolio include Cree Lighting, Maxlite and Williams. Inside Lighting has confirmed that Cree Lighting and Maxlite partnerships will be terminating as a result of this agency merger.
Forman & Associates brings decades of experience in entertainment lighting products to the merger, having long served Hollywood and other entertainment markets. Over the past decade, the agency has strategically broadened its focus, expanding into mass market general lighting and architectural lighting products.
The merger incorporates Forman's relationship with Signify, which began in Los Angeles and recently expanded to San Diego. This partnership includes Signify's Genlyte Solutions brands, Advance drivers and ballasts, and Philips commercial lamps. Notably, Color Kinetics, a longtime anchor of Forman's line card, long preceded the rest of the Signify portfolio joining the Forman mix. Forman also contributes several niche architectural and entertainment lighting lines to the new entity, further broadening the combined product offerings.
Controls, Controls, Controls
The newly formed LINX Lighting & Controls will aim to combine a comprehensive array of lighting control products. Beyond the well-established offerings from Signify and Lutron, the merged entity brings together several niche control lines.
These controls lines include Steinel, known for its sensor technologies; Intelligent Lighting Controls (ILC), specializing in networked lighting control systems; Autani, offering wireless energy management solutions; Enlighted, a provider of IoT platforms for smart buildings; and Synapse, which focuses on wireless mesh network controls for outdoor lighting.
What about Cooper Lighting’s ILC Brand?
Notably, Intelligent Lighting Controls (ILC), acquired by Cooper Lighting in 2023, has maintained separate representation in Southern California – its only non-Cooper alliance in all of North America. Inside Lighting speculates this arrangement may be due to the decision of SCI Lighting Solutions, the Southern California agent for Cooper Lighting, to represent Wattstopper, a major competing controls brand, in the region.
The inclusion of ILC in the LINX portfolio introduces potential conflicts that might leave a worse taste than Wattstopper for the stakeholders at Cooper Lighting. With ILC now poised to share a line card with Lutron, it's intriguing to wonder how these relationships will evolve.
1 + 1 might be greater than 2, but this story is still being written
The formation of LINX Lighting & Controls represents a significant shift in the Southern California lighting representation landscape. The merger combines certain complementary strengths in both line card, market presence and staff deployment.
The new entity faces the challenge of integrating diverse product lines and maintaining relationships with manufacturers who may now share representation with competitors. The industry will be watching to see how LINX Lighting & Controls navigates these complexities while leveraging its expanded scale and capabilities.
