Westinghouse Lighting bolsters focus on Canadian market with joint venture
Westinghouse Lighting-US, Philadelphia, today announced the establishment of Westinghouse Lighting Canada (WL-C), a joint venture between Westinghouse Lighting-U.S. and Combi Inc. Westinghouse Lighting-U.S. currently sells products into Canada through distributors and retail partners. Combi will remain Westinghouse Lighting’s representative and third-party logistics provider.
A press release announcing the new venture said the purpose of the new company is to “provide superior products and services to Canadian customers; while positioning the company for growth in the distribution and retail markets. Over time WL-C will expand the Westinghouse product assortment to meet the growing needs of the Canadian market.”
Ray Angelo, Westinghouse Lighting’s president and CEO, said in the release, “Our long-standing relationship with Tony Di Natale creates a natural expansion opportunity for Westinghouse Lighting. We believe Combi’s Canadian-market expertise combined with the experience and product assortment of our company provides a solid foundation to build upon for many years to come.”
Combi, a Montreal based sales and marketing agency, remains an independent entity supporting its current customers and manufacturers. Westinghouse Lighting-Canada a separate entity led by Tony Di Natale. Neither Combi nor Westinghouse Lighting-U.S. business operations will be impacted by the establishment of this new entity. The new entity will have dedicated resources including an office and distribution facility in Montreal.
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Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.