At a press conference held Monday at the SIB International trade show in Rimini, Italy, Coemar announced its latest structural changes, which complete the deal begun last September when Tracoman, the Florida-based lighting distributor, acquired a controlling interest in Coemar, a top Italian manufacturer of moving lights.
The biggest announcement: The newly formed Coemar UK will be headed by Ian Kirby, the well-known industry figure whose résumé includes a substantial stint at Martin Professional as well as time at the unsuccessful Internet portal G-E-T.com.
Kirby becomes the major shareholder in the new, privately-owned operation, with Coemar USA taking a minor stake. The new company will be based in Maidstone, Kent, where several other lighting companies are now based.
The new facility will offer full warehousing and distribution and will assume all warranties and service for the products sold under Coemar's previous distribution arrangement (known as Coe-Tech, which is now going away).
Joining Ian Kirby will be Ashley Lewis, sales manager of television lighting, and Chris Hale, product manager. One further sales position will be announced later. Both Lewis and Hale, like Kirby, perviously had longtime experience at Martin Professional.
In other news, Coemar USA is the new name of Tracoman, the Florida-based lighting distributor, headed by Gerard Cohen, who acquired the controlling interest in Coemar in September. Tracoman was originally set up by Cohen in the 1980s principally to market Martin Professional products in North and South America, but has been distributing Coemar units for the last couple of years. (Martin now has its own USA office.)
Furthermore, Cohen ananounced that Coemar has streamlined its operations over the last six months. Among other things, the company has expanded its production facilities in Belarus and reassigned administrative tasks to allow Coemar's inventor, Bruno Dedoro, more creative freedom.
The company also announced the latest additions to its product line, including the iSpot 575, ProSpot 575 LX, Panorama Cyc 250 and 250C, iCyc 250, ColorCyc 250LX, iSspot 150, and ProSpot 150 LX. You can read about them in the next issue of Lighting Dimensions.