Why We Manufacture LED Lighting

START Lighting is about manufacturing innovative and high-quality LED lighting and products for the commercial electrical industry. Producing both off-the-shelf and customized solutions, START Lighting provides solutions for all your commercial lighting challenges. By cutting product development time from months to as little as a week, we can produce custom-made lighting products faster than competitors while still meeting our rigorous performance and quality standards.

Electrical distributors are actively seeking high-quality lighting products to match the needs of their customers. In many cases, the appropriate solution does not exist. To serve their customers effectively, commercial electrical distributors need a provider that can fulfill both roles, delivering customized LED solutions as well as off-the-shelf lighting products quickly and efficiently.

With our unique supplier partnerships, proprietary quality assurance programs and firm understanding of international logistics, START Lighting is the leading provider of customized and commodity lighting solutions for the commercial electrical industry. By cutting product development time from months to as little as a week, we can produce custom-made lighting products faster than competitors while still meeting our rigorous performance and quality standards.

Three Generations of Lighting Industry Expertise

Our history began 60 years ago when William Barbour, a young man in North Chicago, took a job as a truck driver for a local distributor. From truck driver to general manager, he progressed upward with an impeccable reputation and was regarded as one of the best to ever hold a position in the electrical industry. He officially retired in the early 1980’s, but was asked to return only a year later to consolidate the Florida markets for a large distributor. He was tremendously respected and passed away while still actively working in the industry.

That same passion for the industry stuck with his son Jim Barbour. After working for his father, he moved from Chicago to Denver where he took a risk and built his own successful industrial control and automation supply company. Following the sale of that company he went on to develop another electrical distribution enterprise and helped it become a very successful and multi-regional operation. He is still involved in the industry today and is considered one of the foremost experts in control and automation products.

Surrounded by the business since childhood, and with spending every break through high school and college working in the field, Jim’s son Jason Barbour joined the industry. Keeping with tradition, Jason went to work for his father, growing from a young branch manager to an executive with a global distributor. Jason built a solid reputation and became the go-to person for reinvigorating underperforming operations.

Spurred on by the entrepreneurial successes of his family, Jason drew upon three generations of relationships to create one of the first LED-specific lighting companies. As one of the foremost participants in the LED lighting revolution, Jason brought one of the first lines of commercially viable LED Lamps to Light Fair International and continues to innovate and shape today’s market.