Solatube Focuses on Expanding Solatube Home Stores

It’s been a little more than 18 months since Solatube International, the world’s leading manufacturer and maker of tubular skylights and cutting-edge ventilation systems, moved under the umbrella of Kingspan Light + Air USA, a division of Kingspan Group PLC (OTCM: KGSPY) out of Ireland.

Despite some inclement weather earlier this year, sunny days have been the norm for Vista-headquartered Solatube and its 160 employees.

“The original owners sold the company in December 2021… to a progressive company that could take us places we hadn’t been before… and Kingspan has continued to say to us that they love everything we do,” said Bob Westfall, president of Solatube International, who has been with the company for more than 27 years.

After operating successful Solatube Home stores throughout Southern California in San Diego, Orange County and Los Angles, Solatube Home has expanded its reach by opening new storefronts in Chicago and Dallas/Ft. Worth and the company also recently opened a location in Manchester, England.

So much respect does the parent company have, Westfall says, that Kingspan Group looks to Solatube to be a model of operations and a mentor for the other companies it operates or owns. Kingspan companies are active in more than 80 countries and employ more than 22,000 people in more than 210 manufacturing facilities.

On the first day of summer in 2023, in appreciation National Daylight Appreciation Day on June 21, Westfall and Solatube hosted the board of directors from Kingspan Group, showing the visitors the local manufacturing plant and retail showroom.

“They told us again, that they’re not interested in trying to change us,” Westfall said. “They said, ‘You guys keep doing what you’re doing.’”

At the time of the acquisition, part of a 714 million EUR buying spree of companies in 2021, Marci Bonham, president of Kingspan Light + Air North America, called Solatube “a phenomenon in the industry.”

“Its ingenious products, clever marketing and passion for making natural light a human right has fascinated our industry,” Bonham said, adding that the two companies together would create “a daylight industry powerhouse and ensuring that more people will have access to natural light.”

The first Solatube product was sold in 1991, and today more than two million people have bought the product, with millions more enjoying its benefits at department stores, schools, hotels, hospitals, grocery stores, offices and athletic facilities.

Solatube has expanded from a residential-heavy client focus to one that also brings light to large venues, including local spots Mesa Rim Climbing Gym in San Diego and San Marcos, Puesto in Mission Valley, Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens in Escondido, the monkey exhibit at the San Diego Zoo, the platypus exhibit at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, Seaside Market in Cardiff, various Stater Bros. grocery stores, the San Diego Humane Society, Alga Norte Aquatic Center in Carlsbad, University of California San Diego’s Pepper Canyon Amphitheater, MiraCosta College and Point Loma Nazarene University.

Westfall said that the company has spent decades developing this technology, investing in research and development, and are now shifting to a more focused plan of growing in different markets where it is needed, “all over the world,” he said.

In January of this year, Kingspan Light + Air USA announced the formation of an Architectural Solutions Team, created to provide a more personalized client experience and help navigate the various daylighting solution options to inspire commercial architects, engineers and specifiers to leverage the power of daylighting to design the best customer experiences in the market.

Kingspan Group

FOUNDED: 1966
CEO: Gene Murtagh
HEADQUARTERS: Kingscourt, Ireland
BUSINESS: Global leader in high-performance insulation and building envelope solutions
REVENUE: Ђ8.3 billion EUR
STOCK: KGSPY (OTCM)
EMPLOYEES: 22,000 globally
WEBSITE: kingspan.com/group
SOCIAL IMPACT: Kingspan Group’s 10-year “Planet Passionate” sustainability program aims to have a positive impact on global challenges of climate change, circularity and the protection of the natural world.
NOTABLE: Solatube International became part of the Kingspan family in 2021 when Kingspan Light + Air acquired the company.