Cooper Lighting Solutions to Rejoin IMARK

After almost 20 years, Cooper Lighting Solutions, as part of its spin-off from Eaton Lighting (and formerly Cooper Lighting), is rejoining IMARK Electrical.

According to a press release issued by IMARK Electrical:

Cooper Lighting Solutions selected as preferred supplier to IMARK Electrical

IMARK Electrical has announced that Cooper Lighting Solutions has been designated as a preferred supplier to IMARK Electrical members. This change is effective January 2, 2020.

Eaton’s lighting division, Cooper Lighting Solutions, has been at the forefront of the lighting industry as technologies have advanced, offering one of the broadest selections of innovative and reliable indoor and outdoor luminaires and controls products in the market.

Through this partnership, IMARK Group members will have access to Cooper Lighting Solutions’ industry-leading brands, including Metalux, HALO, McGraw Edison, and NeoRay, as well as innovative smart solutions like the WaveLinx Wireless Connected Lighting System and Trellix connected lighting platform. 

“IMARK Electrical seeks to partner with proven leaders in every product category our members serve, said Jerry Knight, VP, Supplier Relations and Development, IMARK Electrical.  “As we are a member owned organization, we sought and received a lot of feedback from IMARK member executives on this opportunity.  The feedback we received concerning Cooper Lighting Solutions was highly positive.  We are very excited to work with the Cooper Lighting Solutions team and we look forward to generating positive results for both organizations.”

“As Cooper Lighting Systems embarks on a new journey in the lighting industry, we are continuing to invest in new products and customer support systems,” said Joe Melchiors, Vice President, Sales, Cooper Lighting Solutions. “We are excited to join the IMARK team and look forward to contributing our expertise and solutions to IMARK’s strong growth and profitability tools to help members continue to grow their businesses.”

Lighting represents 25-30% of a distributor’s business and, with IMARK’s demographics leaning more commercial contractor, the membership’s lighting needs may trend to the higher side. We’ve had commercial contractor-oriented distributor clients where lighting is upwards of 40% of sales … so this helps members gain greater support in this market and emphasizes the opportunities members have with brand name companies.

According to our Q3 Pulse of Lighting report, only about 50% of the lighting business conducted by electrical distributors is with what we refer to as the “big 7”. While there are a number of other well regarded manufacturers / brands within IMARK, many are focused on “stock / flow / discretionary business” rather than the large project market. Additionally, the growth within the lighting space and the proliferation of the number of lighting companies in the market highlight the opportunity for distributors to further focus their lighting spend to “endorsed” lines.

As many know, Eaton rebranded Eaton Lighting as Cooper Lighting Solutions effective October 1st. The division was planned to be spun off as an IPO until recently being acquired by Signify with the deal tentatively planned to close in the spring.