September 1, 2026
Bell & McCoy Acquires FSA, Expands in Tennessee
Latest acquisition extends mega-rep’s reach across Central and Eastern Tennessee
Anyone who watched Bell & McCoy poll the room at LightX 2026 over where to hold next year's event got a preview they may not have recognized at the time. Nashville won a three-city vote, and it was the only place on the ballot where Bell & McCoy didn't already have a lighting and controls office. Now the reason is clear.
Bell & McCoy has acquired Factory Sales Agency, the Tennessee rep firm known in the market as FSA Lighting, bringing Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville into the lighting & controls fold. Memphis isn't part of the deal, but it isn't a gap either. Bell & McCoy already has the lighting market covered there, carrying around a hundred lines including Current.
A Familiar Line Card, A New Owner
FSA's appeal lines up cleanly with how Bell & McCoy has built its recent acquisitions: find an agency that already carries the lines the parent company depends on, then integrate it into existing infrastructure. FSA represents Current and Lutron, the same combination that anchors much of Bell & McCoy's footprint elsewhere. The Tennessee agency will now go to market under the Bell & McCoy name.
FSA principals Brent Hester and Jon Miller are staying on, a pattern Bell & McCoy has followed with nearly every acquisition since its FRM merger in 2023: buy the relationships, keep the people who built them. FSA's history stretches back 72 years, long enough that founding relationships have become multigenerational.
"Joining Bell and McCoy marks an exciting new chapter, giving our team access to expanded resources and a broader footprint while preserving the values that have defined FSA for generations," Hester and Miller said in a joint statement.
Rob Duncan, president of Bell & McCoy Lighting & Controls, called FSA "the longest-tenured lighting representative in Tennessee and a dominant specification agency in the market," adding that the two organizations plan to "learn from each other and build on that success."
This latest acquisition highlights a flurry of Bell & McCoy and FRM expansions in recent years:
What Comes Next
The deal expands a footprint that already runs from North Carolina down through Florida and across to Arizona, built acquisition by acquisition since the FRM merger. Tennessee closes another piece of that map.
The Nashville vote at LightX now reads less like a coincidence and more like a company telegraphing its own roadmap to a room full of customers who had no way of verifying it in real time.
For lighting people watching the rep landscape consolidate market by market, the interesting part isn't that Bell & McCoy bought another agency. It's which market they might be eyeing next.
