Hospitality Design - May 2014 - 38

advertorial

Q&A

with

david littman

founder, littman brands contract

How would you describe your business in
one sentence?

Littman Brands Contract is the hospitality design
and contract division representing and supporting
Troy Lighting, Corbett Lighting, Hudson Valley
Lighting and CSL (Creative Systems Lighting)
- a family of lighting companies that produce
high quality and design driven decorative and
commercial-grade fixtures, ranging in style from
traditional to highly contemporary.

How different does your company look
today from ﬁve years ago?

Littman Brands is now a family of four world
class lighting manufacturers. Through a
combination of great product design (both
technically and creatively), efficient management
and manufacturing, smart marketing and a series
of strategic acquisitions, we were able to unite
these brands under a common strategy - while
maintaining the brands' separate DNAs'. We've
also made advancements in lighting technology
as it relates to incorporating LED, efficiency and
functionality, durability and quality of light.
Our company has flourished as a result of
our commitment to R&D for the purpose of
developing products with the latest advancements
engineered into their designs. Demand for our
products continues to increase worldwide, and
we anticipate our total sales to double in the next
five years.

What differentiates your company from
its competitors in the
marketplace?
We operate from a "design first" approach, first

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May 2014 hospitalitydesign.com

deciding on the best designs or requirements of
our clientele and then figuring out how we will
manufacture them. Most companies operate in
the complete reverse, looking at their existing
capabilities and only working within the norm.
Another important point that contributes to our
success is that we control our own manufacturing
environments. We are not held back by
constraints or operational issues that occur when
having to out-source production. Every year our
design team, including top management from
all of the brands, comes up with hundreds of
new concepts. Inspiration comes from fashion
trends, architecture, technical innovation and a
host of other sources. To ensure quality products,
our team goes to great lengths to source the best
materials and components (crystal, hand-carved
wood beads, fabrics, etc.) from all over the world
including locally in the United States, which we
are very proud of.

What is your company's philosophy
toward customization?

Our Hospitality and Contract divisions are
frequently called upon by project specifiers,
designers, architects, builders and others in the
A&D community to execute custom designs as
needed. We have a completely in-house design
team and HD project managers who work with
our clients to bring their concepts to fruition -
even working with our existing collections to
modify or develop products for specific project
specifications or budget constraints. Troy
Lighting, one of our first brands to be active in
the hospitality design market, creates custom
products that are developed and produced in our
state-of-the-art 200,000 square foot
manufacturing facility in City of Industry,

California. This facility also produces specific
custom project work for the other companies.
While Littman Brands maintains some overseas
manufacturing, we work tirelessly to maintain
and build upon our domestic capabilities.

Brieﬂy describe a product/innovation
you have introduced recently.

Solid State Lighting is the future of the business
- perhaps even the industry as a whole. USAI
Lighting, a company that I own with my
sister, that creates cutting edge, world-class
Solid State Lighting fixtures, and CSL, meets
demand for high-performance, architecturalquality LEDs at a price point that appeals to
many architects, builders and designers. We
take the best technology and practices developed
from these companies and incorporate them into
our decorative product collections. An example
of this is quite clever: when we incorporated
our high performance LED's into some of the
latest Corbett collections, we actually machined
important components (for displacing heat) as
part of the exposed decorative fixture. In another
innovative move, we developed new fixtures
combining both LED and incandescent lamping
to create drama, highlights or the perfect balance
of light - typically not achievable with older
industry standards.

How is technology playing a role in
product development?

Technology is evolving at break-neck speed.
The market demands products that constantly
forge new ground in terms of energy efficiency,
product lifespan and quality of lighting. In
addition to using the latest technology to bolster
our architectural and commercial-grade LED
products, we apply these innovations to our
decorative and outdoor lighting lines at Troy
Lighting, Corbett Lighting and Hudson Valley
Lighting. Our engineers and design team thrive
on the latest innovations and constantly push
the envelope. Inside our City of Industry facility,
talented professionals maximize precision and
efficiency by utilizing the latest in leading-edge
tooling, equipment and finishing capabilities.
Additionally, the facility employs the use of
computerized precision laser cutting equipment,
large capacity powder-coat and paint spray
booths, specialty finish applications, TIG Master
Welding facilities, shade manufacturing and fully
integrated production and assembly lines.
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Hospitality Design - May 2014

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