Curt Hutchins, who moved over from the hydraulics unit to group president of Eaton Lighting Division earlier this year and manages the company’s IPO, said Eaton Lighting plans to unveil more than 100 new products this year after introducing 85 new products last year. Hutchins and Kraig Kasler, the unit’s president, gave a news briefing to a group of business press editors at Lightfair 2019 in Philadelphia on May 22.
Kasler said the company’s lighting business has three core areas of focus:
- Contractor-oriented lighting products designed for ease of installation and “stock-and-flow” products for electrical distributors for common lighting applications.
- Specification-grade products for higher-end applications.
- Connected lighting products, the smallest but fastest-growing piece of the business.
Another Eaton executive said today’s lighting market is split pretty evenly between contractor/distributor-oriented products and specification-grade products. Hutchins said today’s lighting business reminds him of the consumer products industry — where he held several executive posts before joining Eaton — because of the rapid pace of innovation. Eaton announced the spin-off of its lighting business, which generated $1.8 billion in revenues back in March. The company had acquired the lighting unit of Cooper Industries in 2012.
