Southwire Makes Organizational Changes
As the company continues to actively pursue its ambitions to grow as diversified electrical business, Southwire announced today that it is making organizational changes to align with its strategic plan.
Effective January 1, 2022, Norman Adkins will be named president of wire and cable and chief operating officer for Southwire. Adkins and his team will be focused on accelerating growth in Southwire’s core wire and cable business. In this role, he will lead Southwire’s wire and cable commercial teams and oversee all of Southwire’s wire and cable operations and supply chain management, including metals.
Adkins joined Southwire in 1998. Since that time, he has led teams across the organization in both the commercial and manufacturing space including International, Energy, OEM, Electrical Distribution and Retail, among others.
Within Adkins’ team, Kathleen Edge will continue to lead Southwire’s wire and cable operations teams as EVP of operations and will remain focused on continued growth and improvement in areas including safety, Lean culture and the company’s nearly one-billion-dollar investment into modernization. Charlie Murrah will expand his role within this team to now serve as EVP, chief supply chain officer and will lead supply chain efforts for the entire company, including metals.
Continuing to align with Southwire’s strategic growth pathways, Brandon Moss will be named president of tools, components and assembled solutions. In this role, he will continue to lead commercial and operations teams within TCAS and will focus on how Southwire is developing solutions to support accelerated growth of this business. Moss joined Southwire in 2007 and was integral in the launch of the company’s tools business and its subsequent growth into components, assembled solutions and other adjacencies.
The company will also begin to place an elevated emphasis on creating a meaningful service business in prioritized platforms to best serve customers in the electrical industry.
For more information, visit southwire.com.
GE Current Acquires Hubbell Lighting’s C&I Lighting Business
GE Current, a Daintree company, recently announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Hubbell Inc. to acquire Hubbell’s commercial and industrial (C&I) lighting business to create a premier end-to-end lighting solutions business.
The Hubbell C&I lighting business, based in Greenville, South Carolina, is a leading provider of professional lighting, lighting controls and connected lighting. The business offers a comprehensive range of indoor and outdoor lighting products for industrial, commercial and institutional applications. The Hubbell C&I lighting business has a strong collection of trusted brands including Area Architectural Lighting, Beacon, Litecontrol, Kim, Columbia, Prescolite, Alera, Dual-Lite, Compass, Hubbell Outdoor Lighting and Hubbell Controls Solutions.
Together, the two businesses’ product and controls portfolios will be positioned to capture growth driven by continued conversion to LED and demand for connected light controls systems through the diversified go-to-market channels.
After closing, Current and the Hubbell C&I Lighting business will maintain separate agency networks with dedicated resources and distinct brands. Both businesses will be able to strengthen their respective portfolios through innovation, leveraging the best commercial tools for speed and driving efficiency through combined scale.
For more information, visit gecurrent.com.
Cerrowire to Build $100M Metal Clad Cable Plant
Cerrowire is celebrating its 100th anniversary by looking ahead to an even stronger future by extending its product offerings in a way that positions the company and its retail partners and electrical distribution partners for success. Cerrowire announces it is investing more than $100 million to build a new 270,000-square-foot facility to produce Metal Clad cable at the Morgan Center Business Park in the City of Hartselle. The facility will incorporate advanced systems and equipment, allowing the company to further its commitment to high quality and cost control.
For more information, visit cerrowire.com.
Milwaukee Tool Expands in Mississippi
Milwaukee Tool will, once again, expand its footprint in the United States with the announcement of a new manufacturing facility in Clinton, Mississippi. Anticipated to open in November, this new facility will accommodate increased capacity for the company’s growing business.
Milwaukee® will invest more than $7 million to establish the new 357,000-square-foot facility, which will act as an expansion of the company’s current facility in Jackson, Mississippi. During the last decade, the company has grown its employee headcount in the state from 526 in 2010, to more than 3,659 in 2021. The company last expanded in Mississippi in April, announcing plans to construct a facility in Grenada. With the announcement of that expansion, the company committed to creating 1,200 overall jobs in the region within eight years.
For more information, visit milwaukeetool.com.
Kichler Lighting Announces Strategic Changes
Kichler Lighting LLC recently announced strategic plans to reposition its business for a dynamic future. Changes include an employee-supported shift to a flexible work culture with a reimagined Northeast Ohio headquarters facility, the closure of the company’s Independence, Ohio-based distribution center and the addition of a new strategic distribution model and facility in eastern Pennsylvania. These changes are being undertaken to provide optimal support for Kichler Lighting’s internal and external partners in this evolving marketplace.
Many Kichler Lighting employees have been working remotely, with significant success, since the start of the pandemic. Productivity has remained constant and employees have indicated a preference for this new way of working.
With this change, Kichler Lighting will relocate its headquarters within the greater Cleveland area from Independence, Ohio, to Solon, Ohio. The Solon facility will be designed to reflect a more dynamic culture, offering a mix of collaborative space and hoteling workspace for local or out-of-town employees that are on-site for the day, plus a new showroom and areas like product quality testing and certification.
In addition to its headquarters shifts, Kichler Lighting has made the decision to implement a new strategic distribution model and open a new third-party managed distribution facility in eastern Pennsylvania, while closing its Independence, Ohio distribution center. The Allentown, Pennsylvania distribution center, scheduled to open by the second quarter of 2022, will provide the company with close proximity to East Coast ports for faster port-to-inventory turnaround and improved delivery efficiencies, as well as up to 600,000 feet of warehouse space.
Kichler Lighting will continue to operate its Las Vegas and Braselton, Georgia distribution centers. To further distribution efficiency and align all facilities, Kichler Lighting is investing in a singular warehouse management system.
For more information, visit kichler.com.
NSI Industries Acquires TechLogix Networx
NSI Industries LLC recently announced the acquisition of TechLogix Networx, a Madison, Wisconsin-based fiber optic and collaboration technology manufacturer. This acquisition will help NSI support its distributors and their clients’ transition from copper-based solutions into the fiber optic technologies that the world demands today.
TechLogix Networx has become a premier brand in the emerging fiber optic and collaboration technology segments. The company has pioneered technology to simplify fiber optic installation and migrate buildings into a high-definition, internet-based world.
For more information, visit nsiindustries.com.
Siemens Acquires Wattsense
Siemens Smart Infrastructure has completed the acquisition of French startup Wattsense, a hardware and software company which offers an innovative, plug-and-play IoT management system for small and mid-size buildings, expanding Siemens’ building products portfolio. Wattsense was started in 2017 and is headquartered in Dardilly, near Lyon, France.
Wattsense optimizes the technical management of small and mid-size buildings with a leading IoT solution that combines simplicity and interoperability. It enables the adoption of energy management practices in facilities with little or no building management system technology, meeting the needs of building professionals seeking efficiency and sustainability. Lowering entry barriers while keeping capital expenditures low, Wattsense allows customers to connect a wide range of devices and make them IoT-enabled. Multi-protocol devices can be onboarded easily before being connected to the cloud and operated in a Software as a Service model.
It makes the benefits of a cloud-based IoT management system for buildings accessible to a wider range of real estate types, including schools, offices, warehouses and retail.
For more information, visit siemens.com/smartinfrastructure.
John Kimmel Retires from Acuity
Acuity Brands Inc. recently announced John Kimmel, vice president, strategic accounts, will be retiring on December
31, after a 43+ year career with the company, primarily working with Acuity Brands’ many distributor partners.
Among his many accomplishments, Kimmel initiated Acuity Brands’ Distributor Marketing and Distributor Sales departments during the 1990s and has remained the ambassador to the company’s distributor partners for more than 25 years. He served twice on the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) Manufacturing Council and has served on the NAED Channel Advantage Partnership council since its inception. Kimmel has attended 114 NAED conferences.
“On behalf of the entire Acuity Brands family, we would like to thank John for his unwavering dedication and many contributions to Acuity Brands, our customers, and the lighting industry,” said Patrick Murphy, vice president, strategic accounts. “He has been a true friend to many in our industry and an honorable business partner. He is valued for his strong, unbreakable relationships throughout his impressive career.”
Kimmel began his career with Acuity Brands in 1978. He started out in the company’s Vermilion, Ohio factory, and worked his way up serving in many functions, such as industrial engineering, quality control, quotations, sales and, finally, distributor sales and marketing.
For more information, visit acuitybrands.com.
ABB Promotes Senior Vice President of Sales
ABB announced that it has named David Henrichs as senior vice president of sales for the Commercial, Industrial & OEM (CIO) US-West Region. In this role, Henrichs will be responsible for the sales of products, systems and services for the electrification business. The CIO-West leadership team includes five US-West district teams (Midwest, Mountain, Northern California, Southern California and Northwest), as well as an OEM Business Development, Lifecycle Management, Regional Distribution Channel and Strategic Accounts teams. In addition to the direct ABB employees, Henrichs will oversee vendor agencies that support ABB in the western United States.
Henrichs succeeds Deni Miller who was recently named senior vice president, installation product sales, electrification U.S. after leading the Midwest district through the ABB/GE Industrial integration. His responsibility will be to continue the growth trajectory as customers experience the benefits of the new ABB electrification one line of power and control products.
With more than 26 years of industry experience, Henrichs joined ABB two years ago as district manager for the Chicago district. He has held various sales and operation leadership roles in the electrical distribution, control and automation industry with Schneider Electric, General Electric and Faro Technologies. Most recently he was the Midwest District sales manager for the CIO-West region.
For more information, visit global.abb/group/en.
OmniCable Hires John Cassidy as CFO
Omni Cable LLC, headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, is proud to announce the hire of John Cassidy as the chief financial officer (CFO). In this role, Cassidy is responsible for providing the overall strategic and operational direction to the company’s accounting, finance and other support functions of the business.
Prior to OmniCable, Cassidy was the CFO for Thomas Foods International, a large food processor and distributor. In addition, he has held various finance and strategic planning positions with AgroFresh and Campbell Soup Company.
For more information, visit omnicable.com.
HPS Appoints Power Quality Sales Manager
Hammond Power Solutions (HPS) recently announced the appointment of Dan Davis as power quality sales manager.
Davis comes to HPS after 20 years of sales management experience in his previous roles of regional sales manager and account manager.
For more information, visit americas.hammondpowersolutions.com.