Acuity Brands Adds Juno Lighting as Group Schneider Refocuses Image and Emphasis

The consolidation and reshuffling of the lighting industry continues to make waves in the electrical market. Acuity Brands, Atlanta, already a dominant player in commercial lighting and other categories, added to its stable of brands with the announcement that it will acquire Juno Lighting Group from Paris-based Schneider Electric.

Acuity said it has an agreement to acquire all of the equity interests of Juno Lighting LLC. Acuity highlighted Juno’s strength in downlighting and track lighting fixtures for residential and commercial applications sold through electrical distributors, lighting showrooms, home centers, contractors, architects, engineers, lighting designers and commercial facilities.

Juno Lighting Group operates manufacturing facilities in Des Plaines, Ill., and Fishers, Ind., and generates current annual revenues of approximately $250 million.

“We are very excited about this strategic opportunity that will allow us to provide customers with an enhanced and broader set of lighting solutions for both residential and commercial applications,” said Acuity chairman, president and CEO Vernon Nagel. “Juno Lighting Group is a widely-recognized and well-respected brand in the industry and its product offering is highly complementary, with minimal overlap, to our portfolio. We believe the combination of our businesses and leadership teams will provide growth opportunities with key customer sets and benefit our primary sales channel partners in their respective markets. We expect this acquisition will be accretive to our fiscal 2016 earnings while also providing a foundation to enhance the longer-term financial performance of Acuity Brands.”

The terms of the agreement reflect a cash purchase price totaling approximately $385 million, which will be financed utilizing Acuity Brands’ available cash on hand. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Management anticipates the acquisition will be completed in late calendar 2015.

Schneider has been refocusing its business lines over the past few months with a new marketing push keyed to the phrase “Life is On” which will be featured in end-user and business-to-business marketing worldwide but fine-tuned for local markets, the company announced in a press briefing last month. The campaign highlights the company’s latest technology and service offerings in key areas such as infrastructure, data centers, automation  and energy, and pairs them with emotionally resonant end results.

“Conventional thinking in B2B marketing places too much emphasis on the rational offer versus the emotional result,” said Chris Leong, Schneider’s chief marketing officer. The campaign combines every media approach but leans heavily on social media, website branding, user apps and other forms of outreach.

Group Schneider also introduced a new offering recently tying the Internet of Things (IoT) into electrical distribution. Its Smart Systems platform is a communication solution for asset management and energy monitoring in low voltage power distribution equipment, the company said in a release. “The system is designed to remove the complexity of connected electrical distribution devices and help customers reduce downtime, manage energy use, and improve operational efficiency. Smart Systems clearly presents real time and historical trending data, allowing facility managers to easily manage and monitor both building energy use and electrical system status anytime. With an innovative plug-and-play design, Smart Systems offers simple, intuitive information to facility managers, enabling smarter decisions for asset and energy management,” the company said in a release.