Around the Industry - May 25, 2012

May 25, 2012
Pike Research predicts contraction in lighting market a decade ahead; numbers on Grainger's e-commerce business; NEMA sees jump in lighting systems

Pike Research predicts contraction in lighting market after 2021

Pike Research, in a study released this week, makes the case that the market for commercial lighting will grow strongly through about 2021, when it will hit about $54 billion, but that it will then contract through the remainder of the ’20s, back down to about $30 billion.
Why? Solid-state lighting. LEDs will displace more than 52% of the global market for lamps in commercial buildings by 2021, Pike says in the report, “Energy Efficient Lighting for Commercial Markets.” Then “the combination of declining prices for LED lighting and the accompanying extended lamp lifetimes will have the effect of shrinking the overall value of the market,” said a release announcing the report.

Grainger expects ecommerce to hit 40%-50% of sales by 2015

A recent posting on www.seekingalpha.com about Grainger’s growth in recent years prompted EM’s editors to research the company’s ecommerce operations, which last year provided $2.2 billion in sales.

In its 2012 Factbook, Grainger had this to say about its ecommerce operations: “eCommerce is a powerful element of Grainger’s multichannel strategy, growing at twice the rate of other U.S. channels. It is the most profitable arm of the business, creating a huge opportunity for sales and earnings growth. Grainger has been a pioneer in business-to-business eCommerce, launching the Grainger.com website in 1995. Today, more than 27 percent of the company’s annual revenue is generated through electronic channels, representing $2.2 billion in sales in 2011. Based on Internet sales revenue, Grainger ranked 15th in the U.S. and Canada on the Top100 e-retailers of 2011.” Now that’s some serious sales.

NEMA Lighting Systems Index jumps 5.2% in 1Q 2012

The National Lighting Bureau (NLB), Silver Spring, Md., said the performance of the first-quarter 2012 Lighting Systems Index (LSI) published by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Rosslyn, Va., bested the fourth-quarter 2011’s by 5.2%, a gain that NLB Executive Director John Bachner characterized as “cause for optimism, especially in light of encouraging year-over-year data.” Bachner noted that year-over-year performance, while strong at 3.7%, was less robust than quarter-over-quarter performance because of “intervening quarterly fluctuations.” “Nonetheless, year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter performance, taken as a whole, is extremely positive.”

NEMA’s LSI is a composite measure of luminaires, ballasts, miniature lamps, large lamps, and emergency lighting shipped nationally and internationally from the United States by the 450 companies that comprise NEMA. Adjusted for the season and inflation, the Index uses 2002 data for its 100-point benchmark.