Leading Petroleum Marketer Selects Cree Lighting
RACINE, WI, May 9, 2023 — Cree Lighting today announced the completion of the initial phase of an extensive project with Beck Suppliers, Inc, located in Fremont, Ohio.
Ohio’s premier retail and wholesale petroleum marketer, Beck Suppliers, Inc., had been investigating a more inviting, easy to-maintain lighting solution for its Friendship stores. To help in the search, Beck turned to trusted partner Red Leonard Associates. After discussing the project objectives, “They told us, ‘We get great comments back on Cree Lighting. You really should give them a look,’” says Lee Beckman, Beck’s vice president of facilities. As a result, the Beck team did a conversion in one location and decided to move forward with Cree Lighting.
“We really try to make the stores pop, and the variety of Cree Lighting solutions we’ve installed helps us do just that,” Miller says. Across several different locations, Beck Suppliers deploys a mix of Cree Lighting luminaires that meet the requirements for each individual store. Area lighting includes the Cree Lighting OSQ Series area lights, OL Series Flood lights, along with THE EDGE® Square Series. At the fueling stations, they use the CPY500 and CPY250 Series canopy fixtures as well as THE EDGE® Series. For the awnings, the XSP Series provides additional area lighting. The net effect is uniform light and a welcoming customer experience delivered with optimal efficiency and safety in mind.
Inside the stores, Beckman and his team selected THE EDGE® Series high-bay luminaires and CR Series troffers, offering a direct uniform white light that enhances aisles and displays. In the coolers, they use the WS Series vapor tight fixtures to provide efficient illumination that also showcases the goods inside.
Cree Lighting solutions are helping define the experience visitors to any Friendship store have come to expect, as well as being a central component of Beck Supplier’s overall business strategy. Many of Beck’s partners sign 10-year fuel-purchase contracts. “We’ll often work Cree Lighting solutions into a project to help secure the deal,” Beckman says. “Lighting and signage are tools we use to get those larger contracts.” He adds, “It’s nice to have lighting that tends to show off your products. And I really feel like the lighting that we have installed there does that.”
As for the reliability of the Cree Lighting solutions and their industry-leading 10-year warranty, Beckman says, “Minimal maintenance translates into more efficient use of my workforce.” The light-pollution control a Cree Lighting solution affords was also a key component in securing zoning approval. “I would say one of the big reasons we went to Cree Lighting was the ability to cut the light off right at the property lines, which everybody was looking for when we started getting into the bigger cities.”
Optionality in fixtures like the CPY500® Series gives the Beck team the ability to make needed adjustments in negotiations regarding footcandles and color temperatures.
Most important, though, is that warm, inviting customer experience and the safety the Cree Lighting solution helps ensure for both customers and employees. “When we’ve done conversions to Cree Lighting from metal halides and other lighting, I’ve gotten comments quite often from employees about how they can’t believe the difference the lighting makes,” Beckman says. “I was getting comments saying you care about your employees enough to make sure that they have the proper lighting.”
For most installations, the Beck team expects the Cree Lighting solution to pay for itself within three years. Ultimately, Miller affirms, “This is the benchmark going forward.”
To learn more about this street lighting conversion project, read Cree Lighting’s new Beck Suppliers, Inc. case study.
About Cree Lighting
Cree Lighting, A company of IDEAL INDUSTRIES, is a market-leading innovator of LED lighting fixtures, lamps and commercial lighting solutions for interior, exterior and intelligent lighting applications. Cree Lighting’s cutting-edge technology delivers proven value for municipalities, as well as for petroleum, warehouse, industrial, healthcare, retail, education and automotive customers. The Cree Lighting team is committed to transforming the way people experience light through innovative technology and intelligence platforms that help make buildings more efficient and businesses more profitable. Visit https://www.creelighting.com for more information.
Media Contacts:
Carrie Martinelli
Cree Lighting
cmartinelli@creelighting.com
919-395-0307