The Future is Bright for New Brunswick’s Green LED Lighting Solutions
Derek Breneol first became interested in LED lighting as a young adult when he noticed the sheer power of the technology compared to other lighting methods.
As a self-starter, Breneol says he’s worked for himself since high school and has used this drive to establish Green LED Lighting Solutions (GLLS), a highly-specialized engineering company focused on LED-based lighting and signage applications. They’ve worked on some pretty cool projects this year, from special lighting for parties at the Guggenheim to designing the lighting portion of an award-winning installation for the Flatiron Public Plaza Holiday Design Competition.
GLLS was first incorporated in Halifax before Breneol made the choice to move back to New Brunswick. The company now has headquarters in Las Vegas as well.
We chatted with Breneol to see what he has in store for the future of GLLS.
How did things get started?
I’ve been self-employed pretty much since high school. What I started in was the satellite industry and I studied software development and electronics. When I was younger, so when I was 21, 22, a friend of mine’s son had a pocket flashlight, the little round ones …
It took off from there. I started doing research, started with bringing my first products into Canada in 2004 and then progressed from there, trying to study the products, trying to learn from them, figured out what made LED lights better than other lights and started figuring out who the market leaders were in the lighting industry and tried to find products that they would be working on. I found that linear lighting in LED is quite a bit more complicated than standard LED lights so that was my niche. I started working down that route with linear LED lighting and came up with the Neon Flux, found a company that was actually producing something similar, started importing their products. The first sale happened in 2007.
I needed support from my parents physically to live and keep the business going. Then it really started to take off in 2009. That’s when we saw a lot of growth. Since 2009 we’ve grown from 60 per cent in the earlier years to now 30 per cent per year. Over 2016, we grew 30 per cent from 2015.
How did you get from starting in New Brunswick to having those headquarters in the U.S.?
I’ve had a business partner since the age of around 22 with the satellite products. We used to sell them online and I met a fellow named Michael Burton, who is from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and we created that business together. We had a little bit of separation and then when the business started to grow, to leverage the US market better, I needed a warehouse and a place to import the product to in the U.S. so I started working with him again.
How does the business work?
Our product line is considered to be a decorative product line, both the LED Neon Flex and the LED light panels. The LED light panels are used for backlighting. The LED Neon Flex is a linear light you see around gas station canopies for example. It’s a decorative strip. It’s used in signage. It’s used in border lighting around buildings. It’s an accent light. It’s used in cove lighting. It’s used to accent patios in some businesses depending on what you’re doing. The light boxes are used for backlighting materials …
We’re creating a product right now that’s going to be used in landscape lighting. It’s a flexible landscape light. We’re quite excited to launch the product.
Another application we just had is Boeing is using the little LED light panels in a pilot project for some instrument lightings in some of their new planes. Apple has also purchased some light panels from us for displays. Oakley uses our light panels in all their glass displays.
How does production work?
We outsource all the production of our product. I go overseas and find manufacturers that have the equipment to produce the lights in the way we spec them. We’ll provide a design and say “this is what we need. These are the type of LEDs we want in it. This is how I want the circuit design done.”
What’s your secret to success now that you wouldn’t have expected in the beginning?
Knowledge. Knowledge of our products. We have more knowledge than our competitors of the products because we basically create them. Even though we’ve had all kinds of companies that copy these products, we still sell more than anyone else because we know more about the technology and the applications and the design aspects of using linear LED products.
Is there any particular focus you have going forward? Where would you like to be in the next couple years?
We’ve been business-to-business since the conception of the business and we’re now working on a business-to-consumer brand of flexible neon lighting products. That’s where the landscape flex comes into place. It’s kind of geared towards business-to-business and consumer both.
Our growth goal is towards a consumer line of products because our b-to-b is going great. Hopefully, break into the box stores. We attend trade shows and we’re building products and packaging that target those markets and hopefully they’ll be picked up by the correct people at the right time.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.