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Acuity Brands

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Acuity Brands, Inc.
Company typePublic
IndustryCommercial and
industrial lighting,
and building management
Founded1892; 132 years ago (1892)[1]
HeadquartersAtlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Neil Ashe (CEO)
ProductsConsumer Goods
List of brands
RevenueIncrease US$3.952 billion (2023)
Increase US$492.6 million (2017)[2]
Increase US$321.7 million (2017)
Total assetsIncrease US$2.989 billion (2017)
Total equityIncrease US$1.717 billion (2017)
Number of employees
Increase 11,500[3] (2020)
Websiteacuitybrands.com

Acuity Brands, Inc. is a lighting and building management firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with operations throughout North America and in Europe and Asia. As of 2024 the company has approximately 12,000 employees and recorded net sales of $3.84 billion for the fiscal year.[4] In terms of market share, Acuity Brands is the largest lighting manufacturer in North America.[5]

History

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The roots of Acuity Brands date back to 1919 when Isadore M. Weinstein founded the Atlanta Linen Supply company. Weinstein had previously been employed in the towel supply business in Cleveland, and after serving in World War I, he started his own business renting towels, uniforms, and linens. He opened several locations throughout the south, changing the name to the Southern Linen Service Corporation in 1920. The company went public in 1928 as National Linen Service Corporation and continued to grow, eventually expanding to markets in the southwest and west coast. By 1944, the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.[6]

Following World War II, Weinstein's son, Milton, had taken over the company. In the 1950s, National Linen faced an antitrust suit due to its dominance in the otherwise fragmented linens industry. The suit was settled in 1956, and in an effort to assuage future antitrust concerns, the company began to diversify. National Linen's first acquisition outside of linens and uniforms was Zep Manufacturing Company, an Atlanta-based chemical and janitorial supply manufacturer, in 1962. Zep became synonymous with NSI's chemical division, acquiring Selig Chemical Industries in 1968 and several smaller acquisitions throughout the 1970s and 1980s. To better reflect its new variety of business units, National Linen became National Service Industries (NSI) in 1964. Zep co-founder Erwin Zaban, who had stayed on following the company's acquisition and was also Weinstein's neighbor, took over NSI's operation in 1966.[6]

In 1969, NSI acquired Lithonia Lighting Inc., a light fixture manufacturer founded in Georgia in 1946, and established a lighting division. Along with the chemical division that grew out of the Zep acquisition, the lighting division that grew out of the Lithonia Lighting acquisition formed the foundation for what would eventually become Acuity Brands.[6] NSI acquired several other lighting manufacturers over the next 30 years, the largest of which occurred in 1999, when Ohio-based Holophane Corporation, a large outdoor and industrial lighting manufacturer, was purchased. Zaban continued NSI's new expansion strategy of acquiring profitable companies without much consideration for synergy among the company's increasing number of business units throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Six business units remained at the core of NSI's operations: linens, chemicals, lighting, insulation, envelopes, and printing. However, the total number of business units ebbed and flowed throughout this period as Zaban acquired companies in a variety of other industries and divested as soon as they became unprofitable.[6]

By the 1990s, NSI's lighting and chemical divisions made up more than half of the company's revenues and operating incomes combined, and both divisions were still rapidly growing. In 1992, NSI added Graham Group, Europe's second-largest specialty chemical manufacturer at the time, and Kleen Canada to its chemical division. NSI added outdoor lighting company Infranor Canada in 1995 and invested in a fluorescent lighting manufacturing facility in Monterrey, Mexico that would serve the entire North American market. The chemical division expanded further in 1997 with the acquisition of Enforcer Products and Pure Corporation.[6][7]

In 2001, National Service Industries announced it would combine the lighting and chemical divisions and spin off that combined entity as a separate, publicly traded company. Initially incorporated as L&C Spinco in June 2001, it was renamed Acuity Brands in November of the same year. James S. Balloun, who had taken over as CEO of NSI in the mid-1990s, moved with the spinoff to serve as the president, CEO, and chairman of the board. In part due to the weak economy that spurred NSI to spin off the new company in the first place, Acuity Brands struggled in its first few years.[6] Balloun retired in September 2004 and was replaced by Vernon J. Nagel, who had joined the firm as executive vice president and chief financial officer in December 2001.[8] Beginning in 2005, Nagel led a restructuring effort that resulted in splitting Acuity Brands into two distinct, publicly traded brands in July 2007. The company's chemical division, Acuity Specialty Products, spun off as Zep, Inc. and included the Zep, Enforcer, and Selig brands. The remaining Acuity Brands, Inc. became the holding company for Acuity Brands Lighting which included the Lithonia Lighting, Holophane, Peerless, and Mark Architectural brands, among others.[6][7][9]

Nagel's tenure as CEO saw the transition of the lighting industry to LED lighting as well as the rise of smart lighting and the internet of things. Acuity grew with these changes in technology, launching the Atrius IoT brand in 2017 after the acquisitions of Sensor Switch and organic creation of brands such as nLight and ROAM. After 16 years as president and CEO, Nagel stepped aside into an executive chairman role, and Neil Ashe was named the new head of the company.[10]

Products

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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.[11]

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.[12] 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.[12][13]

The firm markets its products and services under a variety of brand names including Aculux, Eureka, Holophane, Juno, nLight, Pathway, and Distech.[14]

Acquisitions

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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.[12][15][16][17]

Acquisition date Company Country
February 2009 Lighting Control & Design[15] US
April 2009 Sensor Switch, Inc.[16] US
July 2010 Renaissance Lighting[17] US
October 2010 Winona Lighting[18] US
February 2011 Sunoptics[19] US
February 2011 Healthcare Lighting[20] US
August 2011 Horizon Control[21] US
October 2011 Pathway Connectivity, Inc.[22] Canada
January 2013 Adura Technologies[23] US
January 2013 eldoLAB Holding BV (eldoLED)[24] US
April 2015 ByteLight, Inc.[25] US
March 2015 Distech Controls[26] Canada
December 2015 Juno Lighting Group [27] US
January 2016 Geometri[28] US
July 2016 DGLogik[29] US
February 2018 Lucid Design Group, Inc.[30] US
May 2018 IOTA Engineering[31] US
June 2019 WhiteOptics[32] US
September 2019 The Luminaires Group[33] Canada
November 2019 LocusLabs, Inc.[34] US
December 2021 OSRAM's digital systems[35] US
October 2024 QSC, LLC, [36] US

References

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  1. ^ "Our Story | About Us | Peerless Lighting". PeerlessLighting.
  2. ^ "Acuity Brands 10-K report 2017". Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
  3. ^ "Acuity Brands". Macrotrends.
  4. ^ "Acuity Brands Reports Fiscal 2024 Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year Results". GlobeNewswire News Room. October 1, 2024.
  5. ^ "SSL Postings" (PDF).
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Dinger, Ed. "Acuity Brands, Inc". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  7. ^ a b "The Zep Story". Zep.com. Zep, Inc. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  8. ^ "Acuity Brands names new chairman". Atlanta Business Chronicle. September 1, 2004. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  9. ^ "Acuity Brands to spinoff [sic] Acuity Specialty Products". Atlanta Business Chronicle. July 24, 2007. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  10. ^ Wright, Maury (January 15, 2020). "Acuity Brands introduces Neil Ashe as president and CEO, ending Nagel era". LEDs Magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  11. ^ "AYI - Acuity Brands Inc Company Profile - CNNMoney.com". money.cnn.com.
  12. ^ a b c "DISRUPTCRE". Archived from the original on 2018-05-04. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  13. ^ "Stocks". Bloomberg.com.
  14. ^ "Brands by Acuity".
  15. ^ a b "StackPath". www.ledsmagazine.com.
  16. ^ a b "Acuity Brands Announces Completion of Sensor Switch Acquisition". BusinessWire. businesswire.com. 20 April 2009. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  17. ^ a b Wright, Maury (29 July 2010). "Acuity acquires Renaissance Lighting and intellectual property". LEDs Magazine. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  18. ^ "Acuity Brands Acquires Winona Lighting". Solid State Lighting Design. 19 October 2010. Archived from the original on 17 May 2018. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  19. ^ "Acuity Brands Acquires Sunoptics, a Leading Provider of High-Performance Prismatic Daylighting Products". Business Wire. 24 February 2011. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  20. ^ "Acuity Buys Healthcare Lighting to Boost Medical Market Offerings". Electrical Wholesaling. 1 June 2011. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  21. ^ Wright, Maury (16 August 2011). "Acuity Brands buys lighting-control specialist Horizon Control". LEDs Magazine. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  22. ^ "Acuity Brands Acquires Pathway Connectivity". Lighting Controls Association. 5 October 2011. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  23. ^ "Wireless control developer Adura Technologies acquired by Acuity Brands". LEDs Magazine. 17 January 2013. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  24. ^ "Acuity Brands Acquires LED Driver Manufacturer". Electrical Wholesaling. 8 April 2013. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  25. ^ "Acuity Brands, Inc. Acquires IP and Certain Assets of ByteLight, Inc". Solid State Lighting Design. 16 April 2015. Archived from the original on 17 May 2018. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  26. ^ "Acuity Brands Acquires Distech in a $252M Addition to Its Lighting and Controls Roster". Greentech Media (GTM). 9 March 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  27. ^ "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.
  28. ^ Chandler, Doug (8 January 2016). "Acuity acquires GeoMetri". Electrical Marketing. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  29. ^ Wright, Maury (11 July 2016). "LED business news: Revolution Lighting, Acuity, Seoul, SSL executives". LEDs Magazine. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  30. ^ "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.
  31. ^ "Acuity Brands Announces Acquisition of WhiteOptics". West. 1 May 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  32. ^ "Acuity Brands Announces Acquisition of WhiteOptics". West. 20 June 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  33. ^ "Acuity Brands Acquires The Luminaires Group". West. 10 September 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  34. ^ "Acuity Brands Announces Acquisition of LocusLabs, Inc". LocusLabs. 25 November 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  35. ^ "Acuity Brands (AYI) Buys ams OSRAM's North American DS Business". Nasdaq. 7 June 2021. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  36. ^ "Acuity acquire QSC". QSC. 24 October 2024. Retrieved 24 October 2024.
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