May 11 2010
Nualight Ltd., a leading manufacturer of light emitting diode (LED) lighting solutions to the global food retail sector, announced the expansion of its operations in North America. This will enable Nualight to accelerate its offering to US & Canadian food retailers, giving them a new choice when they want to upgrade their refrigerated cases with more vibrant and brighter displays.
Bruce Schneider will lead Nualight’s US operations, bringing more than 20 years of sales and management experience in the supermarket and food retail industry. Schneider, who joins Nualight as Vice President Sales for North America, previously worked in various senior commercial & technical roles with Carrier-Tyler Refrigeration and Danfoss. Schneider will be based in the company’s new US headquarters office in Charlotte, NC.
Nualight is recognized as a specialist in LED lighting for food retail. The company’s LED light fixtures are installed in a growing number of international food and high-end retail chains, including Tesco plc, Switzerland’s Migros and Co-op chains and Rewe in Germany. Nualight also supplies under private label contracts to leading North American companies such as Kysor// Warren.
“There has never been a better opportunity to step up operations in the US, as retailers look to upgrade to LED lighting,” said Schneider. “Here in the US, we will build on the leadership position the company has established in Europe, and deliver to US retailers the same level of innovation, flexibility and customer support that the food retail industry abroad has come to expect from Nualight. I was particularly impressed to discover that Nualight has already the largest installed base of horizontal LED fixtures in North America and this expansion of US operations addresses the growing market opportunities.”
Increasingly, retailers in the US are looking to replace existing lighting technologies with LED fixtures, allowing them to achieve energy savings of up to 60 percent, both from lighting and refrigeration energy. LED technology also reduces maintenance costs, due to the longer lifetime, and improved product placement by creating brighter, more vibrant displays through better focus and coloring. Nualight’s LED fixtures have already been selected by over 20 food retailers and multiple case manufacturers in North America.
“Nualight is focused on delivering LED lighting products that meet the specific needs of food retailers in the US who have seen LED lighting emerge as the de facto standard in all new and refurbished display cases,“ said Dr. Liam Kelly, CEO of Nualight. “The food retail community is seeing consumers respond to brighter more vibrant displays, and the adoption of LED lighting allows retailers to address this and improve their bottom line quickly with LED lighting.”
Retail stores are among the highest commercial users of energy and are under pressure from environmental legislation and cost considerations, to reduce carbon footprint. Last month, London-based Climate Change Capital Private Equity (“CPE”), a well respected global fund dedicated to investments in clean technology companies, led a $15 million funding round for Nualight.