Page 57 - Jan 2013

January 2013 | Business World Magazine | 57
world’s most prestigious purveyors of light-
ing products.
John Palembas, the United States Sales
Manager for Contrast Lighting, shares the
early history: “Michel’s business wasn’t in
lighting initially, but back in the 1980s he
invented this contraption for recessed light-
ing fixtures, a kind of housing, that holds it
up into the ceiling. He pioneered a process,
which has since been copied in some fash-
ion, yet his was a unique method and a key
patent which helped spring-board the whole
business,” says Palembas.
After establishing a manufacturing plant in
Saint-Jean-Chrysostome of Canada’s Qué-
bec, Lecluze followed by developing other
innovative fixtures essential in low-watt hal-
ogen lighting. During that era, inefficient
incandescent bulbs or their counters in com-
pact florescent varieties were the familiar
lighting fare, but European design sensitivi-
ties were being increasingly infused within