Fulmer Alex TED

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w w w . t e d m a g . c o m J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 6 T H E E L E C T R I C A L D I S T R I B U T O R 55

Ask those in the electrical industry

about the retail market and theyll

tell you its mostly about lighting.

Ask what kind of lighting, andtheyll answer the energy-efficient kind

which should be obvious, since energy

costs are astronomical and lighting eats

up a big chunk of a retailers utility bill.

But there are nuances to retail lighting

and a storeowners desire to cut energy

costs. For instance, it cant be lousy light.

Ideally, retailers want light with a high

color rendering index (CRI), a one to 100

value that indicates an artificial light

sources ability to replicate natural light.

They also want components to last and to

be near zero maintenance. And, as if all

of that werent enough, they want a part-nership between form and function: The

lighting fixtures and design scheme must

be attractive as they are essential in en-

ticing customers into the store and luring

them closer to the merchandise.

Storeowners look at a lot of energy-

efficient applications, but in retail, its

about whats the best lighting application

for the customer to display their prod-

ucts, said Ken Hawley, vice president of

sales at Venture Lighting.

Property management

Replacing cheaper, less energy-efficient

fixtures, lamps, ballasts, and controls with

more expensive but energy-squeezing

retrofits is a big issue. Its often difficult for

a distributor to upsell an end-user when

the price of new-generation fluorescents

and HIDs seems prohibitive. Sometimes

the deck is stacked against a retailer who

wants to be a good environmental stew-

ard. As Mike Lancaster, sales develop-

ment manager for retail and property

management at GE Consumer & Indus-

trial, explained, many mall stores have

leases that require them to pay a prede-

termined assessment or share of the

malls total energy consumption based on

their square footage.

Lancaster has one customer with hun-

dreds of stores across the country. In some

stores the company uses an energy-

efficient 50W lamp that allows it to reap the

benefits of reduced energy savings. How-

ever, in malls where stores arent individu-

ally metered, the retailer continues to use

older, less expensive but less efficient

75W lamps. Theres no incentive to the

store to reduce its individual energy con-

sumption, said Lancaster. As a result,

were seeing malls adding submetering

equipment that allows better manage-

ment of costs and more equitable billing

of individual stores.

Retail construction

Retrofits are only part of the retail land-

scape, and malls represent the declining

side of new store construction. Enclosed

malls are losing favor with consumers

and being replaced by open-air lifestyle

centers that aim for a smaller footprint

MARKET FOCUS BY JOHN FULMER

When it comes to retail, energy efficient is what theyre shopping for.

MARKETS &TRENDS

While retailers desire lighting that entices customers into stores and lures them closer tomerchandise, they are also beginning to appreciate the benefits of energy-efficient lighting.

Know whats in store

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56 T H E E L E C T R I C A L D I S T R I B U T O R J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 6 w w w . t e d m a g . c o m

and a cozy, village-square approach, ac-

cording to the McGraw-Hill Construction

Outlook 2005.

McGraw-Hill said retail turned the

corner in 2003, with a 10% increase in

construction, followed by a 4% increase

in 2004. In 2005, the figure dropped to

1%, but that still means 297 million

square feet of new retail space was

added. The report ties retail to new home

starts, which McGraw-Hill expects to

drop 5%, and projects new retail con-

struction to also fall 5%, but that still

translates into an additional 283 million

square feet.

Reed Construction Data backs up

those growth figures and projected that

$70.4 billion would be spent on retailconstruction put in place in 2005. Reed

expects put-in-place growth to continue

in 2006 with $72.9 billion spent and in

2007 with $76.7 billion spent. Spending in

this sector had been growing steadily

until the post-9/11 downturn, when it

slumped to $63.2 billion in 2002 and

$62.1 billion in 2003, after hitting $67.9

billion in 2001. In 2004, retail construction

put in place began moving upward

again, ending with $66.6 billion spent.

If you look at market segments, retail

spaces are the largest in terms of square

footage, and lighting can represent more

than 50% to 60% of the electric load in the

facility on average, said Nick Bleeker,manager of business de-

velopment for Day-Brite/

Capri/Omega. With those

statistics, retailers need to

know how important light-

ing can be to address

their particular needs.

Design and

implementation

Bleeker said his lighting

companies use a tailored

approach to customers

needs, taking into con-

sideration the stores

preferred image and its

purpose. Since retail is

diversecovering the

likes of Joes Quik-E

Mart, Tiffany & Co., Tar-

get, AutoZone, and Safe-

way supermarketsstore

lighting can be simple,

complex, and anywhere in between.

We talk about the requirements orguidelines for general lighting, accent

lighting, feature and display lighting, and

perimeter lighting. Depending on what

store classification they have, they use

several of those elements, all of them, or

just a few, said Bleeker.

Arnold Jones, president and CEO of

Williams Supply in Roanoke, Va., said

owners often need advice, and distributors

have an open opportunity to approach

retailers and offer services that range from

hazardous-material disposal to energy

audits on their stores. Lighting design,

Jones said, is an excellent prospect for

distributors working with small retailers,

such as jewelry stores and clothiers, who

have the same concerns with product

display as chain retailers. By working

closely with a fixture or ballast manufac-

turer, Williams can make an attractive

value-added proposal that offers design

services to light or relight a space.

We have a person who is very cap-

MARKETS &TRENDS

U.S. retail construction put in place

Electricity use in retail buildings

Continued from page 55

Lighting:

59%

Cooling:

14%

Space heating: 5% Ventilation: 6%

Other: 9%

Office equipment: 7%

70

80

30

20

10

0

60

In

curren

tU

.S.

do

llars

(billions

)

50

40

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

*

2006

*

2007

*

*2005-2007 are estimates. Source: Reed Construction Data.

$56.5

$58.9 $

63.1 $

67.8

$67.9

$63.2

$62.1 $

66.6 $7

0.4

$

72.9 $

76.7

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w w w . t e d m a g . c o m J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 6 T H E E L E C T R I C A L D I S T R I B U T O R 57

able, who can lay out lighting in any en-

vironment. He can produce a CAD-type

drawing, if the customer wants that,

Jones said. It shows the electrician ex-

actly where to hang the fixtures and

specifies the fixture to be used and the

lamp and ballast combinations to achieve

the greatest energy efficiency and

highest-quality color rendition.

The efficient products

According to Don Gaither, manager of re-

tail sales for Technical Consumer Prod-

ucts (TCP), Incandescent sales were flat

in 2004, for the first time in many years.

Typically, incandescent growth was be-

tween 2% to 3% per year.

Gaither believes this is further proof

that retailers are demanding energy-efficient products, such as dimmable

compact fluorescents. There are battle

lines in the quest for energy efficiency,

with fluorescents and high-intensity dis-

charge (HID) lamps as the main combat-

ants. Since both camps have seen vast

improvements in technology, this could

be the most important lighting choice

retailers will make.

Hawley said that metal halide is often

considered first as a fine outdoor lamp

along with its HID cousins, sodium and

mercury vapor, and as a high-wattage

commercial application. But innovations

with lower wattages should give a com-

petitive edge to a pulse-start product line

that includes a full-spectrum, 90-plus CRI

lamp that clocks in at 5,000 Kelvina

near-perfect reproduction of daylight.

Its a very robust light source and will

certainly open up an area or a grouping

of applications that we have not really

been able to get a good market presence

for in the past, said Hawley.

Everyone knows fluorescent lamps are

energy efficient. As with HID lamps, they

provide excellent lumens-per-watt (LPW)

ratios, a measurement of lamp efficiency in

terms of brightness. Comparing an incan-

descents LPW with a fluorescents is like

comparing gas mileage between an

Escalade and a Prius. Fluorescents, how-

ever, have had a reputation for greenish,

sickly looking light, though recent techno-

logical advances are changing that

perception. Fluorescents can now hit 90

CRI or better and develop good Kelvin

ratings while still delivering great LPW

figures. The flexibility of fluorescentsand

HIDswill become increasingly important

as jurisdictions become more stringent

with their energy codes.

Fulmer is a principal of Colston & Fulmer

Editing Services in Joppa, Md. Reach him

at 443-270-8190 or johnsfulmer@com

cast.net.

MARKETS &TRENDS

Lighting design is an excellent

prospect for distributors working with

small retailers, such as jewelry stores

and clothiers, who have the same

concerns with product display as

chain retailers.

Circle 132 on Direct Info Card

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