Byrne Electrical in Rockford acquires LED lighting company, plans 10 new jobs

Deborah Johnson Wood

Byrne Electrical Specialists, Inc. enters the energy efficiency market in a big way with its recent acquisition of XUS Corporation, an innovator in municipal LED lighting solutions. Byrne has moved all manufacturing from XUS' Holland facility to Rockford and will create some 10 new jobs ranging from production team leaders to thermodynamics and optical assemblies engineers.

Byrne Electrical Specialists provides power and data technology primarily to the furniture industry. Furniture makers embed the technology in desk tops, conference tables and other furniture items for the office market, says Mike Lomonaco, communications manager. The company's 200 employees operate two manufacturing facilities in Rockford. The company also has operations in Mexico and China, and owns Byrne Tool & Die, also in Rockford.

"Our initial focus is tooling and manufacturing of municipal luminaires for roadways," says Rusty McBride, director of business development. "The city of Grand Rapids and city of Traverse City are already onboard with prototypes of XUS Roadway installed by XUS in both cities. What makes the product so unique is that it has passive and active cooling systems."

McBride says the key to the success of LED, or solid state, lighting is the ability to keep the product from overheating; the cooler it operates, the longer it lasts. McBride says one XUS Roadway LED operates at 155 watts and lasts a minimum of 50,000 hours, whereas normal street lights operate at 250 watts and last about 30,000 hours.

Byrne Electronics has prototyped and tested another four LED products and is nearly ready to begin production, McBride says. Those products are aimed at the parking garage, industrial low bay, farming and flood lighting markets.

"This is the direction lighting is going," Lomonaco says. "We're looking to partner with municipalities and some of the universities to light downtowns and outdoor walkways. We're not just looking in North America for opportunities, we're looking globally."

Source: Michael Lomonaco and Rusty McBride, Byrne Electrical Specialists, Inc.

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected]. Development News tips can be sent to [email protected].