Changing Lighting Relationships

Monday was “movement day” for lighting relationships.  And the changing relationships may say something more about the manufacturers than their partners.

WESCO Moves to Current by GE

WESCO has been synonymous with Eaton and Phllips Lighting and was / is the largest distributor for both companies for years.  But that is changing.

WESCO announced today that they are replacing Philips with Current by GE.  The announcement reads:

Philips was a mid eight figure supplier to WESCO.

Some observations:

• What does this say about Philips Lighting? Its offering? Its ability to compete?
• This could represent an opportunity for Philips distributors as
• Philips will want to retain its business with national accounts, with projects it was working on with WESCO and as a newly spun off company, needs to retain the sales revenue
• For those who did not have Philips but wanted to … Philips will be looking for new distribution and this could represent an opportunity.
• For Current by GE, the deal significantly increases their distribution footprint, albeit Graybar is probably not too enthralled.
• Current by GE is investing 7 dedicated resources (bodies) to working with WESCO (and perhaps more, definitely more financially and it appears some preferential access to national / global accounts.)  For GE distributors, are you on a level playing field?
• Current, powered by GE, is very active on the fixture and lighting controls side of the business.  How will this new relationship impact Eaton Lighting Solutions’ relationship with WESCO? (and perhaps the broader Eaton relationship?)
• While Current and GE Energy are managed separately, perhaps there could be a broader relationship down the line? Perhaps one that provides Eaton more competition within WESCO?
• And could this be more of an opportunity for lighting companies that are more lamp-oriented (Satco, Eiko, Halco, TCP, etc)

And while this was going on between WESCO, Philips and Current (or should it be GE), there was a major rep alignment change that was first reported by Edison Report.

Chicago Rep Changes from Eaton Lighting Solutions to Hubbell Lighting

PG Enlighten announced that they are dropping the Eaton Lighting line, which they have had for 45 years, and will be representing Hubbell Lighting.  The agency covers the Chicagoland / central Illinois area.  The are also the area’s Leviton lighting controls representative.

This was a surprise for many (perhaps not as much in Chicago as there would have been rumors, but, some third party thoughts:

• Changing lines, especially a key line that has probably been synonymous with the agency, after 45 years is a major, major change. The question then becomes, “why”?
• Congratulations to Hubbell Lighting for gaining a conversion in a high profile market such as Chicago.  Should be a revenue generator.
• The conversion may say something about PG’s perception of the product development plans for both companies.

If you are a lighting agent, what would drive you to make this level of a change after so much time?  Distributors in the Chicago area, how does this change the Chicago lighting market?

A day of change in the lighting industry, but does it change the competitive landscape for distributors? For the lighting manufacturers?