Nualight Acquires LED Accent Lighting Company Lumoluce

The deal accelerates Nualight’s expansion into the accent lighting market for food retail, an early-stage market which is predicted to grow rapidly as food retailers around the world continue to transition to energy-efficient LED lighting.

Nualight is already recognised as a pioneer in LED lighting for refrigerated displays in food retail. In recent years, leading global food retailers including Walmart, Tesco, Kroger and Supervalu have replaced fluorescent lighting with LED in their frozen food displays, yielding energy savings of up to 70%. Nualight’s customers include Tesco, Migros, Sainsburys, The Co-operative Group, Tengelmann, Stop and Shop and Carrefour.

Coupled with its existing refrigerated display lighting business, the acquisition allows Nualight to target a significantly larger combined market which is predicted to reach an estimated annual size of €1bn circa 2016.

Accent lighting – typically spotlights that are used to accentuate high-margin fresh food displays such as fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and salads – is expected to be the next opportunity for LED technology in food retail. Nualight’s LED accent lighting solutions are proven to save up to 40% on energy when compared with incumbent equivalent HID lighting at comparable cost. LED lighting also brings significant benefits in terms of the brightness, accentuation and colour-rendering of food displays, all vital attributes for retailers who want to make their displays as visually attractive as possible to showcase the quality of their food.

The acquisition provides Nualight with an instantly expanded LED accent lighting portfolio and complementary expertise in accent lighting technology.

Lumoluce, based near Amsterdam, also offers Nualight attractive growth opportunities in four additional markets: high-end retail, infrastructure, commercial lighting and drivers.

Dr Liam Kelly, CEO of Nualight, said the transaction is the latest move in his company’s drive to expand its reach and capabilities. “Food retailers today are very focused on deploying new technologies to make their business models as sustainable as possible. In terms of price and performance, LED technology is fast approaching the tipping point for accent lighting in food retail. Through this acquisition, Nualight has acquired a portfolio of products and excellent technology expertise that allows us to move very quickly into accent lighting for food retail and doubles the speed at which we can bring new products to market. It also offers us instant entry into complementary market sectors. We have high growth targets and expect to maintain and build leadership positions in our niche sectors.”

Gerard Kroone, current CEO of Lumoluce, who will remain in thecompany and joins the Nualight Board, said: “Lumoluce has established a strong track record in lighting technology since its inception over 30 years ago. In recent years we have developed a particular expertise in LED technology which is underpinned by innovation and application-specific lighting solutions, just like Nualight. This deal will create a combined company with an enhanced expertise, responsiveness and reach that will create new and exciting market opportunities.”

Nualight is the only LED lighting company in the world that specialises exclusively in lighting of food retail displays. Led by Dr. Liam Kelly, a leading authority in LED lighting, Nualight is chaired by Eamonn Quinn (formerly of the Superquinn chain). This unique combination of LED innovation, speed to market and applications expertise makes Nualight a powerful partner for retailers who wish to drive footfall to their food displays while delivering on their sustainability agenda. The acquisition was funded partly in Nualight shares and partly with an equity issuance led by existing shareholders Climate Change Capital Private Equity and ESB Novusmodus.