CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--More than half of 67 stores operated by Medina, Ohio-based Discount Drug Mart, Inc.---37 stores to date---have completed lighting retrofits that the retailer expects will deliver a combined energy and maintenance cost savings equal to the margin earned on $14.2 million in sales over the life of the new lamps. The main prescription for better, more efficient lighting involves a shift from 8-foot T12 linear fluorescent lamps and electromagnetic ballasts to energy-saving 32-watt 4-foot T8 linear fluorescent lamps and GE ProLine® high-performance electronic ballasts from GE Consumer & Industrial.
United Resource Group helped Drug Mart and John Wright, its co-chief operating officer, examine how to best attack the inefficiencies of its store lighting schemes. The installation involves overhead lighting in sales, office and storage areas---an average of 320 fixtures in each 25,000 square-foot store.
A 10-fixture test at the Drug Mart in Avon Lake, OH, sealed the deal. "Our store manager noticed right away that he liked the new versus old lighting," recounts Drug Mart's Wright. "We initiated this project with a primary focus on improving operational efficiency. We have completed it with the additional satisfaction of having improved the quality of light in our stores. That means we've improved the customer experience, and perhaps set ourselves apart from competitors."
The stores' new GE lighting system delivers about 30 percent in energy savings compared with the previous system---over $560,000 per year across the 37 retrofitted stores, for the life of the lamps.
GE Consumer & Industrial spans the globe as an industry leader in major appliance, lighting and integrated industrial equipment, systems and services. Providing solutions for commercial, industrial and residential use in more than 100 countries, GE Consumer & Industrial uses innovative technologies and "ecomagination," a GE initiative to aggressively bring to market new technologies that help customers and consumers meet pressing environmental challenges, to deliver comfort, convenience and electrical protection and control. General Electric (NYSE: GE) brings imagination to work, selling products under the Monogram®, Profile™ GE®, Hotpoint®, SmartWater™ Reveal® and Energy Smart™ consumer brands, and Entellisys™ industrial brand. For more information, consumers may visit www.ge.com.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Full-text release and high-resolution photography available at http://www.geconsumerproducts.com/pressroom/ press_releases/lighting/commercial_lighting/discountdrugmart_08.htm (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)
David Schuellerman
GE Consumer & Industrial
[email protected]
1-216-266-9702
1-216-513-6236