Glamox turns 70
(Norway) – Reflecting on decades of development, Glamox looks to the future and adjusting to new trends in lighting market.
This year Glamox celebrates its 70th anniversary. Over the decades Glamox has developed from a small Norwegian company to an international group with 1,300 employees and a global presence.
Today, Glamox is a supplier of lighting to the world’s marine and offshore markets, and a significant supplier to the professional building market in Europe. The annual turnover in 2015 was 2.500 million NOK. The Glamox Group owns a range of lighting brands including Glamox, Aqua Signal, Luxo, Høvik Lys, Norselight and LINKSrechts.
Light management systems
CEO Rune Marthinussen expects Glamox to continue the rapid development which has characterised the last decades.
“We have handled the adaptation to LED very well and we now offer our customers lighting solutions that provide better light quality, lower energy consumption and lower maintenance costs. But we will continue to develop and adjust to new trends in the market,” commented Marthinussen.
Marthinussen is pointing to light management systems as a business opportunity Glamox will exploit fully over the next few years. “Efficient control of LED lighting will increase productivity, provide a better working environment and reduce energy consumption even further for our customers.”
New technology
Focusing on automation and new technology has been a very important part of the Glamox success.
“We have invested in robots and automated the manufacturing process as much as possible,” explained R&D Manager Odd Thorvik. He has seen a rapid development cycle in his years in the company. From calculators in the 70s to the current use of 3D printers and more advanced robots and machines.
Thorvik works in Molde, Norway, where the largest Glamox factory is situated.
‘‘The machines we use here to manufacture the luminaires are also constructed by Glamox. Glamox is the only company in the world that uses this much automation. Other lighting manufacturing companies use more manual labor. This is an advantage that has kept us competitive,” added Thorvik.
Red Dot award
Over the years, product design has become increasingly important to Glamox. Hence the company now develops its products in close cooperation with renowned designers from all over the world. One example of this is the freestanding luminaire Linea which was designed by the Swedish designer duo Oskar Daniel and Emil Marklund. Linea received the Red Dot Award in 2016.
Glamoxation
Glamox was founded in 1947 by the Norwegian civil engineer, scientist and inventor Birger Hatlebakk. While teaching physics and chemistry to university students, Hatlebakk was privately experimenting with electrochemical processes. He discovered a method for electrochemical surface treatment of aluminium, which he called glamoxation. (From the Norwegian words glatt-matt-oxydert). This process he initially used for various industrial purposes. The lighting company Glamox was founded when Hatlebakk realised how the glamoxation process could be used to manufacture efficient aluminium reflectors for powerful luminaires.
Glamox made a number of important acquisitions from the 1980’s onwards, including Høvik Lys, Norselight and Aqua Signal, with Luxo being acquired in 2009. Through acquisitions and expansion production and assembly now takes place at a number of factories in Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Germany, Canada and China.
