Barron Lighting Group, Glendale, AZ, moved last week to capture a bigger share of the booming market for horticultural growing lights with a deal to acquire Growlite, the largest player in horticultural lighting. Barron adds Growlite to its lineup, where it joins the Exitronix, Trace-Lite, specialtyLED and Indoor Grow Science brands.
The combined experience of Barron Lighting Group and Growlite bring together the science of HID and LED lighting with the art of indoor horticulture, Barron Lighting said in a release announcing the deal. In 2014, Barron Lighting Group positioned itself to capitalize on the opportunities this emerging market presents with the creation of its Indoor Grow Science brand as the sole U.S. distributor of Growlite products.
This acquisition brings Growlite's founder, Aubrey Bradley under the Barron umbrella to further expand its specification grade products and services. Years ago, Aubrey was a principal of one of Barron's top performing lighting reps. In 2010, he left commercial lighting to develop and patent several indoor grow lighting technologies and create Growlite.
“Barron made the investment in the horticultural lighting industry three years ago by launching Indoor Grow Science and partnering with Growlite. With this expansion and formalization of our relationship, we are replacing the Indoor Grow Science brand name with Growlite,” said Alan Tracy, owner, and president of Barron Lighting Group.
The horticulture lighting market includes the commercial greenhouse market and the legal cannabis industry. Various market pressures are cultivating rapid growth in the greenhouse market segment to the tune of an expected $8B dollar industry for 2017 and $15B by 2020. The total legal cannabis industry was $4.9B in 2015 and is expected to be almost $35B by 2020. The combined total of these two agriculture markets that utilize specialized grow lighting technologies could exceed $50B by 2020.