Acuity Brands

Acuity Brands, Inc. is a lighting and building management firm headquartered in Atlanta, GA., with operations throughout North America and in Europe and Asia. It currently has about 13,000 employees and recorded net sales of $3.7 billion for fiscal year 2018.[3] In terms of market share, Acuity Brands is the largest lighting manufacturer in North America.[4]

Acuity Brands, Inc.
Public
Traded as
ISINUS00508Y1029 
IndustryCommercial and
industrial lighting
Founded2001
HeadquartersAtlanta, GA, United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
CEO: Neil Ashe
ProductsConsumer Goods
List of brands
Revenue US$3.505 Billion (FY 2017)
US$492.6 million (FY 2017)[1]
US$321.7 million (FY 2017)
Total assets US$2.989 billion (FY 2017)
Total equity US$1.717 billion (FY 2017)
Number of employees
13,000[2] (2018)
Websiteacuitybrands.com


History

From Linen to Lighting

The roots of Acuity Brands date back to the early 20th century and to what was originally a linen supply company. Isadore M. Weinstein, who was born in New York City and raised in Cleveland, founded the Atlanta Linen Supply company in 1919, after serving in World War I. Branches were opened in other locations in the South in the 1920s, and the name changed to Southern Linen Service Corporation.[5]

It went public in 1928 as National Linen Service Corporation and continued to grow, becoming a dominant player in its field by the mid-20th century. Due to antitrust concerns, the company began to diversify in the 1960s, adding new business lines (chemicals, envelopes and insulation) and changing its name to National Service Industries.[5]

In 1969 it acquired Lithonia Lighting Inc., a light fixture manufacturer formed in Georgia in 1946. This laid the groundwork for a new division at NSI and was an important piece of what would later become Acuity Brands.[5] Various divisions came and went, but the lighting division continued to grow; by the early 1990s it was providing the largest share of the company’s revenues. Additional lighting companies were acquired by NSI. The largest of those acquisitions occurred in 1999, when Ohio-based Holophane Corporation, a large outdoor and industrial lighting manufacturer, was purchased.[5]

Acuity Brands Formed

In 2001, National Service Industries announced it would combine its two largest divisions, lighting and specialty chemicals, and spin off that combined entity as a separate, publicly traded company. In November 2001, the spinoff was completed. The new company was named Acuity Brands, Inc.[5] James S. Balloun, who had led National Services Industries since the mid-1990s, moved with the spinoff to serve as the president, CEO and chairman of the board. He retired in September 2004 and was replaced by Vernon J. Nagel, who had joined thefirm as executive vice president and chief financial officer in December 2001.[5][6]

In 2007, the company separated its lighting and chemicals businesses by spinning off Acuity Specialty Products into a spinoff named Zep, Inc.[5][7] This included the Zep , Enforcer and Selig specialty chemical brands. The separation left Acuity Brands, Inc. as the holding company for Acuity Brands Lighting.[5][7]

Products

The firm's products include luminaires, lighting controls, building system controllers, prismatic skylights, drivers, power supplies and integrated systems for indoor and outdoor applications in commercial, industrial, institutional, infrastructure and residential spaces.[8] T

They include recessed, surface, suspended, downlight, decorative, track and emergency indoor luminaires as well as outdoor lighting for street and roadway, parking, flood, landscape, site, area and underwater applications. It also provides digital networked lighting, building management and IoT.[9]modular wiring, LED drivers, photo controls, occupancy sensors, dimming panels, relay panels, integrated lighting control systems, and products and services related to networked technology, building automation and building analytics.[9][10]

The firm markets its products and services under a variety of brand names.[3]

Acquisitions

The firm's acquisitions have focused on technology: LED lighting (including tunable lighting), controls, intelligent drivers, connected lighting, indoor location services, building management and building analytics.[9][11][12][13]

Acquisition date Company Country
February 2009 Lighting Control & Design[11] US
April 2009 Sensor Switch, Inc.[12] US
July 2010 Renaissance Lighting[13] US
October 2010 Winona Lighting[14] US
February 2011 Sunoptics[15] US
February 2011 Healthcare Lighting[16] US
August 2011 Horizon Control[17] US
October 2011 Pathway Connectivity, Inc.[18] US
January 2013 Adura Technologies[19] US
January 2013 eldoLAB Holding BV (eldoLED)[20] US
April 2015 ByteLight, Inc.[21] US
March 2015 Distech Controls[22] Canada
December 2015 Juno Lighting Group [23] US
January 2016 Geometri[24] US
July 2016 DGLogik[25] US
February 2018 Lucid Design Group, Inc.[26] US
May 2018 IOTA Engineering[27] US
June 2019 WhiteOptics[28] US
September 2019 The Luminaires Group[29] US
November 2019 LocusLabs, Inc.[30] US
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References
  1. "Acuity Brands 10-K report 2017". Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
  2. "Acuity Brands". Fortune. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  3. "Acuity Brands, Inc. Names Laurent J. Vernerey Executive Vice President and President of Acuity Technology Group".
  4. "SSL Postings" (PDF).
  5. "Encyclopedia".
  6. "Biz Journals".
  7. "Business Wire".
  8. "CNN Business".
  9. "DISRUPTCRE". Archived from the original on 2018-05-04. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  10. "Company Overview of Acuity Brands, Inc".
  11. "Acuity Brands to acquire Juno Lighting from Schneider Electric".
  12. "Acuity Brands Announces Completion of Sensor Switch Acquisition". BusinessWire. businesswire.com. 20 April 2009. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  13. Wright, Maury (29 July 2010). "Acuity acquires Renaissance Lighting and intellectual property". LEDs Magazine. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  14. "Acuity Brands Acquires Winona Lighting". Solid State Lighting Design. 19 October 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  15. "Acuity Brands Acquires Sunoptics, a Leading Provider of High-Performance Prismatic Daylighting Products". Business Wire. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  16. "Acuity Buys Healthcare Lighting to Boost Medical Market Offerings". Electrical Wholesaling. 1 June 2011. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  17. Wright, Maury (16 August 2011). "Acuity Brands buys lighting-control specialist Horizon Control". LEDs Magazine. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  18. "Acuity Brands Acquires Pathway Connectivity". Lighting Controls Association. 5 October 2011. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  19. "Wireless control developer Adura Technologies acquired by Acuity Brands". LEDs Magazine. 17 January 2013. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  20. "Acuity Brands Acquires LED Driver Manufacturer". Electrical Wholesaling. 8 April 2013. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  21. "Acuity Brands, Inc. Acquires IP and Certain Assets of ByteLight, Inc". Solid State Lighting Design. 16 April 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  22. "Acuity Brands Acquires Distech in a $252M Addition to Its Lighting and Controls Roster". Greentech Media (GTM). 9 March 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  23. "Acuity Brands, Inc. Completes Acquisition of Juno Lighting Group". NEMA - National Electrical Manufacturers Association. 11 December 2015. Archived from the original on 17 May 2018. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  24. Chandler, Doug (8 January 2016). "Acuity acquires GeoMetri". Electrical Marketing. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  25. Wright, Maury (11 July 2016). "LED business news: Revolution Lighting, Acuity, Seoul, SSL executives". LEDs Magazine. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  26. "Acuity Brands, Inc. Acquires Lucid Design Group, Inc. - DisruptCRE". DisruptCRE. 2018-02-21. Archived from the original on 2018-05-04. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  27. "Acuity Brands Announces Acquisition of WhiteOptics". West. 1 May 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  28. "Acuity Brands Announces Acquisition of WhiteOptics". West. 20 June 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  29. "Acuity Brands Acquires The Luminaires Group". West. 10 September 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  30. "Acuity Brands Announces Acquisition of LocusLabs, Inc". LocusLabs. 25 November 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
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