|
1951
|
 In 1951, Mel Jacobsen started Mel's Van O Lite in Minneapolis, MN, by stocking and selling light bulbs out of a van -- hence the name. Mel's Van O Lite started growing as a lighting distributor to many consumer retail establishments. The company purchased a fleet of cargo box vans and used the vehicles to stock and service all of their customers.
|
|
1955
|
Mel Jacobsen partnered with Don McLellan and their company really started to develop a presence in the Minneapolis area. In the 1960's a warehouse was purchased and Mel's Van O Lite began its role as a prime light bulb distributor in the Minneapolis, MN area. During this time period, Mel's Van O Lite moved twice as they continued to grow and need more warehousing.
|
|
1980
|
Mel Jacobonsen retires and Don McLellan continues to run the company (as Van O Lite) with three of his sons, Dave (Service Lighting President), Tom and Steve. It was during this time that Van O Lite solidified its presence in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area as a major player in the lighting industry.
|
|
1996
|
 Van O Lite becomes the first company to sell light bulbs online, when Paul McLellan (Dave McLellan's son & Service Lighting Vice President) started work on the VanOLite.com online storefront. Van O Lite started by selling compact fluorescents, full spectrum bulbs and flashlights. The response was immediate, as E-Commerce was just starting to grow and become commonplace in both homes and businesses.
|
|
2000
|
 Van O Lite created Lite-House.com to be its new dedicated e-commerce superstore! Lite-House.com quickly became the most complete online light bulb store with well over 4,000 lighting products, many features to help the customer locate their products, "human" customer service and much more.
|
|
2001
|
 Van O Lite built a new facility in 2001 to accommodate the incredible amount of growth that their web store, Lite-House.com, had created for them. The new facility allowed for Van O Lite to branch out into additional lighting products online, adding in multiple lines of lighting fixtures and ballasts.
|
|
2004
|
 Van O Lite and Lite-House.com merge to create Service Lighting. The name "Van O Lite", whose inception was based on business being conducted out of the back of a cargo van, had become somewhat obsolete; however, "service" still remained a staple for the company, so a new name was forged: Service Lighting. The new name and image proved very successful, so much so that a decision was made to convert their e-sales through Lite-House.com into ServiceLighting.com. ServiceLighting.com launched by increasing its product line from 4,000 to more than 15,000!
|
|
2005
|
 Due to phenomenal growth online through ServiceLighting.com, Service Lighting moved from Fridley, MN (after 30 years) to a new state-of-the-art facility in Maple Grove, MN. Now in a facility nearly four times larger than their previous one, Service Lighing exploded in growth online and in other US locations.
|
|
2008
|
 Coming full circle, Service Lighting launches a new dedicated e-commerce store, eLightBulbs. Now offering over 25,000 light bulbs and accessories, eLightBulbs is an incredibly simple, yet feature-rich application that provides the ultimate solution to buying light bulbs online. eLightBulbs is truly "stress-free shopping".
|
specials
History
