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Co.’s Lights, Fans Have Growing Impact in International Markets

Robert Westfall Jr., president of Solatube, stands in front of a tubular device at the company’s Vista headquarters.

Founders: David Rillie, John Hanley and Graham Dickson

President: Robert Westfall Jr.

No. of Employees: 140

Year Founded: 1991

Revenue: Nearly $50 million in 2018 thus far, up from $20 million in 2013 (private company)

Company Description: Manufacturer and marketer of tubular lighting

If you ask Solatube International Inc., president, Bob Westfall Jr., to describe what the daylight and ventilation systems manufacturing company is about in one sentence, he’d simply say: “fresh air and natural light — that is our business.”

Founded in 1991 by businessmen David Rillie, John Hanley and Graham Dickson, the Vista-based company, which services residential and commercial spaces, got its start by offering homeowners a tubular lighting, which uses advance optics and technology to capture and redirect daylight through a reflective cylinder which then diffuses it at the ceiling level.

Since then, Solatube has expanded into the commercial space, with installations in the Encinitas Union School District, Grossmont College, Oceanside Unified School District, and at Coca-Cola plants in Peru, China and Saudi Arabia, among others. The company has added additional international markets to its list of clients, including working with businesses in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and North America, expanding Solatube products to more than 100 countries.

Ventilation Market

In 2000, Solatube officially entered the ventilation market with a focus on providing consumers with an affordable, energy efficient way to solve heating and cooling challenges at home and at the office.

In 2008, Solatube was tapped to be the main lighting provider for the Beijing Science & Technology University, a sporting event venue at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and also for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. It recently added a sales office in China, which is an expanding market for revenue growth, said Westfall, who has been president since 2008.

Solatube continues to release new products, including its “Whole House Fan” in April, and has added 20 more employees in the last four years, bringing that number up to 140. The company’s revenue has grown to nearly $50 million in 2018 so far from around $20 million in 2013, with projections to grow an additional 5 percent by the end of this year.

“Now we are focused on really rolling the house fan out,” said Westfall. “It ventilates the entire home very quickly and is supposed to replace air conditioning or, at the very least, augment it. It is way less expensive than turning on the AC because it has a super-efficient motor. A lot of people actually prefer it because air conditioning dries the air out so much. We believe this is a huge category that can bring us a lot of sales growth.”

Health Benefits

The benefits to natural light exposure are multifold. Not only is it cost-effective and leaves less of a carbon footprint thanks to its sustainability aspect, according to an August 2017 Time.com article, the lack of natural light exposure can lower a person’s serotonin levels, causing depression in the fall and winter months in people with seasonal affective disorder. The disorder, also called the “winter blues,” is the “lethargy and feelings of sadness and hopelessness that come when the weather forces people to spend more time indoors and the season provides little opportunity for exposure to natural light,” according to the report. Less exposure to sunlight can also decrease a person’s melatonin levels and circadian rhythm, causing one to become sleep deprived and, as a result, grumpy.

In the work environment, natural light has additional perks. According to research released January 2018 from Cornell University, optimal amount of daylight reduces eyestrain, headaches and blurred vision of office workers by 84 percent. “The study found that optimizing the amount of natural light in an office significantly improves health and wellness among workers, leading to gains in productivity,” said Professor Alan Hedge. “As companies increasingly look to empower their employees to work better and be healthier, it is clear that placing them in office spaces with optimal natural light should be one of their first considerations.”

Westfall told the San Diego Business Journal in 2014 that a “warehouse could potentially reduce energy consumption by 60 percent by using the SkyVault lights instead of traditional lighting.” The SkyVault is the lighting system that became available in 2003 and is capable of lighting larger commercial spaces.

While his team of inventors is always working to create the next best thing in lighting and ventilation, Westfall says, he hasn’t committed to anything just yet. “We have a division called Pario, which means to ‘bring forth’ in Latin,” he said, “and they are always working on futuristic stuff. But, that is on the hush-hush.”

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