Coachella Valley Cannabis Alliance Network Member Profile on Iluminar Lighting

Company Name

ILUMINAR Lighting (Subsidiary brand of Luminous Planet Ltd.)

Year Business Started

2014 Launched ILUMINAR Lighting brand

Total Number of Employees

35 Employees in North America – 130 Employees Overseas

Company Philosophy

Keep the company innovative and agile, continually evolving to suit needs and demands, not trends and tech gossip. We approach solutions and partnerships and don’t lead merely with profits and corporate sales goals, but with compassion to grow with the industry and solve for the real issues by delivering the best products available on the market.

Company Owner(s) and Senior Management

Shawn Brissette – CEO

Complete oversight of the Sales channel and development of the Commercial Division. Shawn works directly with wholesalers, commercial facility developers, field representatives, key industry personnel and developing Licensed Producers. This gives Shawn one of the best understandings of the current market trends and needs in the Cannabis Industry. Shawn enjoys working side by side with facilities daily and gaining a real-time understanding of their needs at the product level. As a veteran company, Shawn Brissette and ILUMINAR Lighting can leverage flexibility and knowledge, delivering products that are in demand instead of pushing existing inventory that has become outdated. Shawn’s business model has more than 60% of his products custom built per order, which reduces inventory levels and keeps the business flexible to consumers and industry needs.

Shawn Brissette has one mission statement; ask about the goals and potential obstacles of the customer, then custom tailor solutions to fit their goals and deliver a superior product without hurting their bottom line. Shawn has been in the Cannabis Industry delivering solutions and innovative lighting products for almost 20 years; his staying power has made him a well-known fixture in the industry and a go-to man for those in need of superior and reliable products and information. Shawn’s own words “I’m not here to burn bridges, I am here to build long-term partnerships”

Eric Kerker – COO

Eric works directly with marketing, sales and operations to bring the entire business together in a modern tech-savvy world. Eric is the glue and the lines that connect everything, right in the middle of ILUMINAR Lighting and its parent company Luminous Planet, bringing new applications and technology into the business today. Any given day, you can catch Eric planning a product mind map with Shawn, writing copy for a magazine article, mapping out the pricing model for new products, aiding new employee training, or editing video for social media. Eric’s biggest passion is building a new and innovative product in CAD and then 3D printing prototypes in-house so ILUMINAR Lighting can be first to market on a cutting edge new lighting fixture release. Eric has worked in several industries, giving him the ability to have a macro view of the industry and understand the details of the organization and branding for ILUMINAR Lighting.

Company Products and/or Services

LED, CMH, HPS, MH, T5 and Lighting and Environmental Controllers

ILUMINAR Lighting is a lighting manufacturer of all commercially used indoor lighting products in the agricultural market. Indoor agricultural lighting has a wide variation of products that can be offered, and ILUMINAR Lighting is one of the few companies that provide lighting for every application. ILUMINAR Lighting internal team offers complete indoor and greenhouse lighting layouts and comparison studies for commercial applications. Their products span from HPS and CMH fixtures to the high-demand LED Fixtures. They will also be offering a new controller system to be released releasing Q2-Q3 of 2019 that provides the first lighting controller that will be able to control both DE (Double Ended) and CMH (Ceramic Metal Halide) fixtures and LED fixtures for under $500. ILUMINAR Lighting offers products in every emitter/lamp category and makes sure that their clients have the largest selection of fixtures to choose from, as well as every electrical/voltage application offering fixtures from 120 Volt to 480 Volt variations. The Staff is available 24/7 to the consumer market for any assistance.

Products & Services that are Unique to the Cannabis Industry

ILUMINAR Lighting was born in the Cannabis industry, so most of its product line applies to the cannabis marketplace. Unlike many indoor lighting companies, the range of products that ILUMINAR Lighting offers is impressive. This includes high output T5 fixtures for the energy conscience prosumer grower to the high-end LED emitters for every level of grower that wants the best output without the compromise of high wattage. ILUMINAR Lighting is also the only lighting company to continue to innovate with cannabis specific products, like the Vertical Double Ended Lamp fixture, specifically made for the growers that have limited plant count restrictions and that choose to grow larger plants. Taking an old school approach and adopting a new school emitter ILUMINAR Lighting combines vertical lighting taller plants with the high output DE HPS, and MH lamps and allow the “tree” grower to stimulate the secondary and tertiary levels of the plant, hence giving the gardener a larger harvest. ILUMINAR Lighting is also launching the new HASH controller, specifically made to suit the professional gardener that wants to take total control of their operations no matter how big or small the garden. More products are planned to be released later this year.

How has the Cannabis Industry Changed in the Last Several Years?

The industry is like comparing night and day from just 2014, but even more so, 2010, with lighting from less than ten years ago has evolving tremendously. The industry has gone from fringe and basement grows to famously successful opportunities for angel investors that would have scoffed at the idea a decade ago. The majority of capital investors, large corporate manufacturers, and celebrities stayed clear of the topic of cannabis, and if they approached it, they were labeled as a fringe category. With so much changing in the last ten years the industry is positioned to make a major jump into the future.

Today, every level of technology is being used to push the Cannabis industry, and as alcohol prohibition had innovations, so does this one, the cannabis industry is pushing indoor agriculture in directions not able to be achieved anywhere else. Whereas the harvested crop carries so much value and revenue, the ability to adopt expensive technologies like LED and Plasma lights are pushing the envelope on how to grow, feed, and harvest in ways that commercial agriculture has never seen before. Our trade shows have gone from flip flops and woven ponchos to suits and Italian shoes. We will only see the professionalism rise up to levels where many of the original founders and legends of this industry will find themselves in unfamiliar territory.

What Changes do you See Happening in the Cannabis Industry in the Next 10 Years?

There have been significant moves made by big industry and from the US and Canadian governments to legalize, allowing the legal era of Cannabis will begin. These notable actions will evolve the industry in ways we have seen in the past. Companies like Anheuser-Busch, Phillip Morris and many more have been poised for five-plus years to capitalize on this complete shift in the federal status. We will continue to see the acquisition of smaller companies be acquired by large corporate entities. Commercial Grow facilities will slowly merge with companies like Reynolds or Liggett and Myer, or other major outdoor tobacco corporations.

These companies are already positioned to grow a plant that will be soon be regulated by the FDA, ATF and other governmental regulatory divisions. This does not mean we will ultimately lose the small grower, we will still have the successful “Micro Brews,” and favorite blends that the connoisseurs will boast about in magazines, focused on these remaining premier strains. There is a singularity approaching, it could be in 5 years, 10 years, no one knows just yet, but history has taught us where it is headed, and it might not be where we all wanted it to go. We all helped start this billion-pound boulder rolling downhill towards legalization, and many of us may not be ready for where it will end up, leaving our industry we love so dearly. But it has been one amazing time to be a part of and if for some reason the industry changes to completely legal… it is, in the end, what we all really wanted.

When and Why did Your Company Join CVCAN?

We joined a few months back based on a recommendation from our local distributor. We knew that the localized groups in the High Desert and Coachella Valley will be the most prominent developers in Southern California and we had been in the area working on projects. CVCAN gave us an opportunity to be present with developers and facilities in the planning stages that would be soon changing the landscape of that area. The chance to be with these groups and hearing about the developing regions, building constraints, obstacles, andsuccesses are helping ILUMINAR Lighting improve our structure and our process to deliver solutions to these facilities and in our strive to become a better partner overall.

The Coachella Valley Cannabis Alliance Network (CVCAN) is an organization that provides a responsible and productive voice for the cannabis industry throughout the Coachella Valley. Our innovative programs and events, foster networking and important information in the development, operations, regulations and outreach. For more information visit CoachellaValleyCAN.org