Press Release New Group company founded Zumtobel Group

Press Release
Dornbirn, 31 May 2013
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New Group company founded
Zumtobel Group strengthens its innovation leadership in the field of intelligent
lighting management
Dornbirn, Austria – The Zumtobel Group is concentrating its activities in the field of intelligent lighting
management by founding a dedicated company: Zumtobel Group Controls Solutions GmbH. From the
autumn of this year, this wholly-owned subsidiary of Zumtobel AG will unite the lighting management
systems development, production and procurement activities of all three Group brands. Management
of Zumtobel Group Controls Solutions GmbH will be entrusted to Alfred Felder – in addition to his
duties as CEO of Tridonic – and Georg Schaffgotsch, Head of Corporate Financial Analysis at the
Zumtobel Group.
“In our view, intelligent lighting management holds enormous potential for the business development of
all Zumtobel Group brands, because lighting management systems hold the key to innovative and
energy-efficient lighting solutions,” said Zumtobel Group CEO Harald Sommerer. “Through this
strategic redirection we can make the best possible use of the synergies that exist between Zumtobel,
Thorn and Tridonic. By concentrating our activities in this way, we expect to trigger a substantial surge
of innovation that will help strengthen our market leadership in the long term.”
The role of a lighting management system is to control multiple luminaires within the same building.
These systems employ intelligent instruments such as daylight and occupancy sensors, enabling the
supply of artificial lighting to be adapted to the amount of daylight and the current situation. This can
result in energy savings of up to 70 percent in buildings. At the same time intelligent lighting
management leads to better quality lighting and promotes the well-being of the occupants.
The new Group company will not have its own sales department, but will develop the optimum
solutions for the various brands in line with the respective specifications.
Günther Johler, Product Management Director Systems, Zumtobel: “As the premium brand, we at
Zumtobel have been working on this topic for a long time now and have already successfully brought
products to market and can point to reference projects. Right now we are in the process of launching
the eBOX, a new, optimised solution based on LED emergency lighting that can be integrated with all
available lighting management systems. The new company will enable us to achieve much shorter
development cycles and make maximum use of the strong innovative capabilities that exist within the
Group.”
Karl-Heinz Fenkart, Product Management Director, Tridonic, is aiming to draw on precisely these
advantages as he coordinates the widest variety of customer requirements “Our aim is to use
intelligent components to put all our lighting industry customers in a position to realise energy-efficient
lighting solutions. We at Tridonic will ensure that the requirements of all our customers are fed into the
development roadmap with the aim of arriving at a flexible modular system that is easy for the
customer to operate – extending from sensors for individual luminaires all the way to complex systems
for large buildings. This way we can also support the individuality of our customers.”
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Caption: The new eBOX emergency power supply system from Zumtobel.
Information
This press release and the accompanying high-resolution image can be downloaded at:
http://www.zumtobelgroup.com/en/press_center.htm
Media contacts
Astrid Kühn-Ulrich
Head of Corporate Communications
Tel. +43-(0)5572 509-1570
[email protected]
Simone Deitmer
PR Manager / Deputy Press Officer
Tel. +43-(0)5572 509-575
[email protected]
About the Zumtobel Group:
The Zumtobel Group, based in Dornbirn in the Vorarlberg region of Austria, is one of the few global players in the
lighting industry. The Group, which started life as Elektrogeräte und Kunstharzpresswerk W. Zumtobel KG in
1950, employed a workforce of 7,456 full-time equivalent employees on the balance sheet date 30 April 2012
(2010/11: 7,814) and in the 2011/12 financial year posted consolidated revenues of EUR 1,280.3 million (2010/11:
EUR 1,228.2 million). Within its multi-brand strategy, in the professional luminaire and lighting solution business
the Group is represented in the marketplace by the Thorn and the Zumtobel brands. The lighting components’
business (control gear, lighting management, LED components / modules) is handled by the Tridonic brand. The
financial year of the Zumtobel Group commences on 1 May and ends on 30 April. For further information, please
visit http://www.zumtobelgroup.com/en