Company profile: ERCO, the Light Factory – globally active with pioneering LED technology

ERCO’s claim: Optimum solutions for architectural lighting

Lüdenscheid, April 2012 - ERCO, specialist for lighting engineering hardware and software for architectural lighting, is one of the leading companies in the luminaire industry. The company's design and development capabilities and technological competence - especially in LED optoelectronics - have made it a global pioneer in innovations for producing, directing and controlling light for both indoor and outdoor areas. With over 60 subsidiaries, branches and agencies, ERCO is active in all the world's major markets, such as the USA, China, the Middle East or South America. Light, not luminaires is the company credo, which is why ERCO sees itself as a light factory whose products are leading lighting solutions for every conceivable task of architectural lighting.

Light: The fourth dimension of architecture
Light interprets space, makes it perceivable and an experience per se - this is the modus operandi of ERCO's daily work. The luminaire manufacturer understands light as the fourth dimension of architecture. Therefore, the focus is not on lighting equipment simply as furnishing for rooms, but on luminaires as tools of lighting design. Utilising its core capabilities in lighting engineering and LED optoelectronics, ERCO designs and builds suitable hardware and software for this emphasis, always staying focused on the practical requirements of efficient visual comfort. As a permanent constituent part, the product package also includes customer service, which is provided through the global network of intensively-trained ERCO lighting consultants. The company is regarded, above all, as a pioneer in the field of LED technology. For this reasons, ERCO lighting tools illuminate exceptional pieces of architecture, such as the Berlin Reichstag or the National Portrait Gallery in London, just as effectively as the flagship stores of Diesel Jeans, Dolce & Gabbana or National Geographic, for instance, and the airports of Malaga, Dubai, Montevideo and London-Stansted. Also in universities, churches, hotels, trade fair stands, shop windows, administrative buildings, parks and private houses, ERCO luminaires ensure appropriate light for ambient luminescence, focal glow and play of brilliants. The resultant lighting architecture defines the appearance of buildings, cities and landscapes at night.

Family business in its third generation
ERCO was founded in 1934 by Arnold Reininghaus as a family business in Lüdenscheid, which is where the company still has its headquarters to this day. Research laboratories, design studios, offices and state-of-the-art production plants and logistics systems are located here in an ensemble of award-winning industrial buildings. About two thirds of the workforce are employed at the company headquarters; in addition, there are the ERCO lighting consultants in the offices and showrooms throughout the world. Over the decades of its existence, ERCO has established itself as a global brand for light, yet has remained an independent family business - now managed by the third generation. The Light Factory's management board is occupied by Tim Henrik Maack, Kay Pawlik, Marcus Schramm and Mark Oliver Schreiter. Since its establishment, ERCO has received many international prizes, including awards in the fields of product design, graphic design, marketing and corporate design. In fact, the company developed its own corporate design together with the distinctive German designer and artist Otl Aicher, and ERCO holds the copyrights on Aicher's pictogram system to this day.