With the Enlightened View

Why this business-to-business cataloger started a consumer book: Gray Supply, a company that now sells specialty lightbulbs under the name Topbulb, last year established Lighting for the Home, a new catalog of home lighting accessories for the high-end consumer market.

“The specialty lightbulb business is a great business in a high-margin marketplace. Its dollar size and profitability are very good,” says Phil Bonello, president at Gray Supply. “That said, we’re adversely affected by Asian sources and by improving technology. Lightbulbs last longer these days, so we’ve had to make significant changes to our product mix to stay ahead.”