Yesterday, Bill Brown Sales (BBS) and MetroSpec Technology announced a new distribution partnership under which BBS would act as the North American OEM sales channel for FlexRad flexible LED light engines. The distribution deal brings BBS’ partners to 13.
For more than 15 years, MetroSpec has been manufacturing FlexRad LED light circuit offerings in the U.S. from its Minnesota facilities. The company’s Linear360, FacetCore (both in 2021), FacetCore Spline, and FlexRad BoardOnCoil Minnie light engines have been recognized under LEDs Magazine’s Sapphire and BrightStar Awards programs from 2021 to 2023. In a joint conversation with BBS and LEDs during LightFair, MetroSpec general manager and founder Vic Holec said the manufacturer’s competitive advantage has rested on its U.S. base of assembly, deep circuit design expertise, and reliable, flexible illumination technology, and now “we’ll be able to furnish even more lighting OEMs with our high-intensity, thermally efficient light sources.”
“We’re excited to have MetroSpec Technology in our lineup of OEM offerings,” BBS president Donny Wall said. “We are ready to start [collaborating] yesterday.”
MetroSpec president and CEO Todd Crandell echoed Wall’s eagerness. “This partnership with Bill Brown Sales enables new synergies with our customers for components acquisition. We expect it to enhance lead times for customers, which have generally been well controlled, even reducing them from weeks to days, by combining multiple supplier relationships under one channel,” he told LEDs.
When asked how the distribution channel will open up new opportunities for MetroSpec, Crandell said that up to this point, “everything [we’ve engineered] has been custom or private label.” With BBS' long “history in the [lighting] industry,” he explained, the OEM sales agency can expand awareness of MetroSpec’s current FlexRad products and future developments.
Wall said BBS has observed greater demand for “Made in America” lighting components, with “more specs coming in [from product developers] to require that up front,” and the distribution deal will deliver “huge benefits to BBS clients.”
Family-operated BBS has been representing lighting component manufacturers for nearly 70 years, founded by Bill Brown (ret.) in 1955. His son, Steve Brown, now serves as CEO. “With this family-owned model, we’re always looking for partners who are in it for the long haul,” Wall commented.
In addition to MetroSpec, BBS represents A.L.P., Bridgelux, Genesis Plastics Technologies, Inventronics, Light Tool International, Lynk Labs, Morelux Lighting, RLR Industries, Roytec Industries, Sur-Seal, Tripar, and Wald Wire & Manufacturing.
CARRIE MEADOWS is managing editor of LEDs Magazine, with 20-plus years’ experience in business-to-business publishing across technology markets including solid-state technology manufacturing, fiberoptic communications, machine vision, lasers and photonics, and LEDs and lighting.
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