Not that anyone will care but me....

[Darthrob13]

...the Strand operation in California is now kaput.

As of end of business today, Strand is no longer a California company.

I doubt very much that many of the people that I worked with there will ever read this but you all should know that there really was a hard working core of individuals that truly worked their tails off to support the customers.

Some of these people you may know, but most will not ring any sort of bell:

Holly Sherman- Moved to Dallas. Over-seer of custom products and historian. One of my favorite people.

Chino Gutierrez- If you have used aC-21, CD-80AE or SV rack, then you most likely have been in touch with his handy-work. He worked on the production line for longer than I would care to think about and built or inspected most of the main dimmer racks. He is still out of work and again...among my most favorite people.

Peter Palal- Electrical Engineer. Peter was with Strand only slightly less than I have been alive. He created some of the most complex systems any of us will ever hope to see. He is a gentle soul and I wish him well in whatever he does next.

Mike Wagner- Field Tech. Sparky, or Buttah (don't ask)...whatever you called him, he could fix just about anything. Good man to have around when SLD is brought up.

To all who are now unemployed in Cypress- remember that we did our best in all ways at all times.

To those in Dallas....don't screw it up.

R

 

[SteveB]

...the Strand operation in California is now kaput.

As of end of business today, Strand is no longer a California company.

R

Sorry to hear this, but I think what you are saying is that the Strand service facility in CA is no longer. but possibly it's moved to Dallas ?.

FWIW, the website lists quite a few authorized service center - mostly separate companies doing some form of service, including a Calif. company called 24/7 and also lists the main Dallas address. Hopefully this is a step to get it's technical support on par with the folks in Middleton.

SB

 

[Grog12]

God that sucks. I don't like to see any lighting company have to close doors, wheter on a facility or on a buisness as a whole.

 

[gafftaper]

First off I want to point out that Rob is another Strand tech person who lost his job in California.

I believe this was purely one of those consolidation moves that lots of companies are doing these days. With the fabulous communication technologies available today and the ease of overnight shipping. Many companies are deciding they can be financially more competitive by no longer supporting multiple offices around the country. They feel they can be more efficient by moving all their operations to one location. It does probably make more sense on a business level. But that doesn't help the people who are faced with moving to another state to keep their job or worse, learning that their job has been absorbed by someone else in another state.

Is that a fairly accurate interpretation Rob?

 

[Darthrob13]

Yep. Solely a consolodation move.

Though Genlyte purchased Strand in '06 it wasn't until Philips bought Genlyte that Strands time in California was limited.

Lots of people got hurt by this. If you are a praying type, keep the 40 or so former Strand employees in your prayers.

R

 

[ship]

Yep, sorry to hear of it and hope you find career in other better places. Philips the new Borg now that PRG has settled down a bit, and Marinco or Leviton have stopped buying also amongst others?

My fear is that Philips bought out too late and cannot ride the times in getting bigger. LTI and Color Kenetics amongst other recent buyouts by them also.

Beyond this last I heard GE sold off the lamp division also in trouble. No idea of end results but hopefully we all wind up fine.

 

[jonliles]

Beyond this last I heard GE sold off the lamp division also in trouble. No idea of end results but hopefully we all wind up fine.

I work for GE. We have not sold the "Lighting" Divisions yet. We still make Stage & Studio Lamps (for now). At least the product is still listed on GE Lighting's web page.

Good luck to everyone formally at Strand California!

 

[ship]

I work for GE. We have not sold the "Lighting" Divisions yet. We still make Stage & Studio Lamps (for now). At least the product is still listed on GE Lighting's web page.

Good luck to everyone formally at Strand California!

That's good to hear and glad to hear it. Must have mis-heard that in thinking I was told more than once I had thought. My honest apology and glad that GE still is making lamps. (Inprove your boxes - they don't survive touring long. Have your rep for Illionis contact me.. been like 15x years since I last had a direct rep. and we should still have a direct account. PM me for an address.) Anything new coming out of the Koto or Thorn divisions or the rumered' improved HPL lamp? Any hope of a Thorn catalogue or catalogue for lamps that are not listed in the GE S&S catalogue from them?

 

[jonliles]

Have your rep for Illionis contact me.. been like 15x years since I last had a direct rep. and we should still have a direct account. PM me for an address

Ship-
I have no control over what the Lighting side of the business does, I am strictly power generation (GE ENERGY). This link may help you though:
Contact Us

Here is the "Where to buy- distributors" link.

Online sales (if you have an account): (Elitenet)


Even Better:
Chicago GE Lighting
701 E 22nd St., Ste. 300
Lombard, IL 60148
p. 630 652-4400
f. 630 652-4486

And this would happen to be everthing in the Stage&Studio Line

 

[DimmerDotCom]

...the Strand operation in California is now kaput.

As of end of business today, Strand is no longer a California company.

I doubt very much that many of the people that I worked with there will ever read this but you all should know that there really was a hard working core of individuals that truly worked their tails off to support the customers.

Some of these people you may know, but most will not ring any sort of bell:

Holly Sherman- Moved to Dallas. Over-seer of custom products and historian. One of my favorite people.

Chino Gutierrez- If you have used aC-21, CD-80AE or SV rack, then you most likely have been in touch with his handy-work. He worked on the production line for longer than I would care to think about and built or inspected most of the main dimmer racks. He is still out of work and again...among my most favorite people.

Peter Palal- Electrical Engineer. Peter was with Strand only slightly less than I have been alive. He created some of the most complex systems any of us will ever hope to see. He is a gentle soul and I wish him well in whatever he does next.

Mike Wagner- Field Tech. Sparky, or Buttah (don't ask)...whatever you called him, he could fix just about anything. Good man to have around when SLD is brought up.

To all who are now unemployed in Cypress- remember that we did our best in all ways at all times.

To those in Dallas....don't screw it up.

R

A belated Sorry Rob as I heard about this right before it was going to happen. In truth, the great slide under happened about 2 years after I was first hired at Strand. R/D was shut down in the US and moved to the UK, sheet metal was out sourced, paint lines were out sourced. Then in one day I was laid off from Field Service. I had been the only person in the factory from Field service even present for a solid 4 weeks to answer technical calls as the SF Opera install was eating the whole department's time. They few in Tom Wiers that day to help me out. I was laid off in the morning. Then in the afternoon the New Jersey people were laid off, though they has had an earlier lay off of one person and their support staff were let go. At the close of business poor Tom Wiers who flew in from Chicago was laid off. Field Service went from 8 to 4 in less than 8 hours. And we were already down by three at that point.

At this time Sparky was still a draftsman and Milton (now at Fleenor) was still hopeful.

Charles from Florida would be flown in to take over my duties unbeknownst to him (and Stradn for that matter) that I was doing my job, Alicia's job (laid off), Randy's job (quit), Lei's job (laid off), part of Steve's job (quit), and I had taken over all other aspects that directly affected my job to bypass the bueracracy (like direct inputting data into the mainframe that affected field service and the repair/test department). I heard those were fun times.

It was both sad and a bit surrealistic to see the company begin to derail itself as the execs were lining their pockets. It was like watching the train crash from "The Fugitive" in ultra slow motion over 15 years.