MIAMI–Catalina Lighting has virtually closed its decorative Aziano Lighting program for lighting showrooms and has given up its Dallas Market Center showroom in order to focus on its roots in the mass market.
“We have focused the Aziano line to the top-five customers, and this allowed us to cut the SKUs and expenses by 90 percent,” said Cory Meyer, chief executive officer of Catalina. “This just was not a business we could focus properly,” he said.
Meyer told HFN that those top-five customers were purchasing more than one-tenth of the line, “so we decided to take care of them extraordinarily and not try to be all things to all people.”
Instead, Catalina is focusing on its value-priced task and decorative lighting for volume retailers, including mass, home center, office superstore and specialty stores under the Tensor and Catalina names, as well as private labels, Meyer said. New products are constantly being developed and presented to these retailers, he said.
Meyer said that Catalina is the midst of a turnaround but declined to divulge the company’s strategy. He did say, however, that energy-saving lighting solutions, such as fluorescent and light-emitting diodes, are part of the company’s product lineup going forward and will continue to grow in importance.
“The majority of suppliers and retailers are ‘carefully’ adding more energy efficient products so as to not get caught without, but this will be a trend that all will be required to carry more varieties and more dedication to retail space,” Meyer said.
As for trade shows, Catalina will continue to exhibit at High Point Market, and Meyer will walk the Las Vegas Market this month to gauge attendance and relevance to his company. — Nancy Meyer
