140 Employees
Brad Penney, Streamlight's president and chief executive officer, says 140 people work there in two shifts. Additionally, the company has 12 regional sales managers who maintain more than 8,000 distributor accounts nationwide.
"We've almost doubled our size in the past five years," Penney says. "We've grown rapidly and that is because of a couple of reasons. First, we have innovative products that are well built and, second, we have a the top sales and marketing team in the industry."
He explains that Streamlight does not sell products directly
to end users, going through its distributors instead, even
when there's a temptation to sell direct to large cities seeking large bids.
"We are ferociously loyal to our distributors," says
Sharrah. "We do not sell around these guys, we do not
sell factory direct. We honor our distributors." He
says that is an important after-sale point for users. "If
you don't have local service, it makes it difficult for
our ultimate customer. That's really part of our marketing plan for customer satisfaction."
Walter Kaihatu, Streamlight's vice president of sales and marketing, says, however, that it's the product that carries the day in the end.
"What sets us apart is the fact that we focus on the professional market," he says. "We tend to the people who use lights as tools and the designs we use are geared to them."
Kaihatu explains that many of the products and designs were
developed from focus group meetings with firefighters and
emergency personnel to talk about their needs in hand lights.
Many of the products and accessories ideas came from users.
Customer Feedback
"We have had feedback from small departments to large
ones and everyone has an opinion," he says. "We
really make an effort to live in the fields we provide
products to. We want to do what you do. That's really our philosophy."
To live where firefighters do, Lance is actively involved with fire schools and has trained with firefighters, field tested the products and is a member of the Fire and Emergency Manufacturers and Services Association (FEMSA) board of directors. He says Streamlight people "spend a lot of time with firefighters and EMS personnel, listening to exactly what they need and trying to package products." Lance says.
Penney says that Lance is well versed in the fire service having come to Streamlight from Bacou-Dalloz's SCBA division, Survivair.
Focusing on Fire/EMS
"Since we've assigned Allen to fire and EMS, he has helped us
out a lot in that area," Penney says. "Also,
we have five or six firefighters working here. We have
assistant chiefs, lieutenants, firefighters, and most
of them work in the production area."
Streamlight entered the fire market in 1980 when it introduced its LiteBox Lantern, the company's signature
fire service light. The familiar orange lunchbox-size
light with a high-intensity halogen bulb has been a staple in the fire service since.
"It's a benchmark product in the fire industry," says Sharrah. "It
does its job very well. Ironically, I don't think
we had the fire market in mind when we developed the LiteBox." Penney
agrees and says it was "just a neat, rechargeable work light for us."
"We kind of backed into the fire market," he comments. "We
really didn't know that market back then. It wasn't one of core target markets."
Streamlight is a privately held business, owned by the same people who founded it in 1973.
Roots in Space Research
Streamlight started off as Photochem, a company founded to help the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) come up with
a source that would simulate unfiltered sunlight found in
space. It made devices that provided artificial sunlight
for training of astronauts.
The name Photochem Industries was quickly changed to Streamlight and
the company then redirected its efforts to take the technology
developed for NASA and build a smaller lunchbox-sized long
distance searchlight or spot light with a Xenon short arc
lighting system.
Plasma Arc Light
"At the time, it was unique in the lighting industry," says
Penney, who recently marked his 30th year with Streamlight.
The company was originally located in northern New Jersey
and then King of Prussia, Pa.
"It literally made a plasma arc. It was truly a million candle
power spotlight. There's all kinds of products being advertised
as one million candlepower lights today, but none of that
is true by our standards."
The light, which Streamlight sold for six or seven years, was used by
border patrol personnel and search and rescue teams. However,
Penney says the lights were expensive, about $400, 30 years
ago, and the small market wasn't enough to sustain the company.
So, Streamlight went searching for a new product.
Penney, who had a background in law enforcement when he joined Streamlight, talked to one of the staff engineers and told him that cops needed a better light and he challenged him to come up with one.
"I told the engineer that with the knowledge and experience he had with lighting and optics that he ought to be able to come up with better light output - and be did."
That light combined a quartz halogen lamp, the same kind used in slide projectors, and a parabolic reflector that put out 20,000 candlepower which, at the time, was more than eight times more than its closest competitor. That was in 1975.
"It was like having a car headlight in your hand," Sharrah says.
The cost of the light, $59, was a deterrent and it was slow to catch on.
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