‘Easier to sell new lights, even with a higher price’

A leading distributor of lighting has said that it’s easier to sell new luminaires even when they’re more expensive than reconditioned.

Rickard Lundell, sales and marketing director at Scandinavian distributor Rebel Light, says that even in projects where sustainable options are considered, ‘we still find that it is easier to sell according to our old, linear and basically irresponsible, model, even when we make the responsible option cheaper’.

Lundell also believes the lack of new business models and entrants in the sustainability sector is harming adoption. ‘A lack of comparable competition makes our circular model difficult to compare in both quality and money,’ says Lundell. ‘Because of this, some people still prefer to shop on worse terms because they are easier to expose to competition.’

In January 2022 Rebel Light launched a circular business mode dubbed Renew: Reuse: Rebel to offer designers, clients and end users the opportunity to specify, purchase or lease technical lighting according to circular terms and conditions.
The company offers a 20-year service for circularity with each product as well as a service agreement for both design and technology with delivered projects.

The company is changing the terms of purchasing and selling light fixtures, and establishing Rebel Light as a service and repair centre for architectural lighting.

Rebel Light says it is redefining the role of the lighting distributor by introducing a model for decentralised manufacture, renewal and maintenance of lighting products.

Rebel Light’s circular terms are:

• All products can be renewed 20 years from date of manufacture.

• Renewed products are sold with a warranty of five years.

• Rebel Light are authorised by the manufacturer of the product to perform all service and repair jobs. In many cases including on-site repairs via Rebel Light’s mobile workshop.

Rebel Light offer cash buy-backs on any product that was sold from the circular collection.
The service won a prestigious Green rating in the 2022 Build Back Better Awards.

• Diary date: Circular Lighting Live 2024, Recolight’s flagship conference and exhibition, takes place on Wednesday 9 October 2024 at the Royal College of Physicians in London. Free to specifiers, Circular Lighting Live 2024 will feature leading experts, specifiers and policy makers who will share their insights into forthcoming standards and legislation, emerging technologies and new business models. More info: www.circularlighting.live