Sylvania, Danvers, Mass., is best-known in the electrical market as one of the three largest lighting manufacturers in the world, along with GE Lighting, Cleveland, and Philips Lighting, Somerset, N.J. But for the past 35 years, the company has been a growing power in the lighting maintenance business by providing lighting design, lighting audit, maintenance and installation services to retail stores, office buildings and other commercial/industrial customers.
Its purchase last week of Amtech Lighting Services from ABM Industries, New York, will increase the size of this business unit substantially. Amtech Lighting Services is one of the nation’s largest lighting management companies, serving over 35,000 locations, with 26 branches and 64 satellite operations across the United States.
Amtech Lighting’s former parent, ABM Industries, is one of the largest facility services contractors listed on the New York Stock Exchange. With fiscal 2006 revenues in excess of $2.7 billion and more than 75,000 employees, ABM provides janitorial, parking, engineering, security, and mechanical services for thousands of commercial, industrial, institutional and retail facilities in hundreds of cities across the United States and in British Columbia, Canada.
“Sylvania Lighting Services will now be the country’s most comprehensive lighting service organization,” said Tim Lesch, Osram Sylvania’s vice president of general illumination sales and marketing. According to a press release, the deal will expand Sylvania Lighting Services to new local and regional markets across the country and strengthen its presence in the banking, office and industrial markets. The company’s service fleet will increase from 500 to 900 vehicles nationwide, following the sale.