LONDON – RCF Group announced that Peter Johansen, formerly head of Martin Professional, has been named director of R&D for its SGM lighting subsidiary. Based in Aarhus, Denmark, with eight of his former R&D team members, Johansen will oversee parallel development of a series of conventional discharge moving lights and LED fixtures.
Johansen, who was welcomed to SGM by Arturo Vicari, managing director of the RCF Group, said he had no intention of re-entering the lighting industry once his 10-year non-compete contract with Martin had expired, but he was swayed after meeting with Vicari.
"I could see they would be great guys to work with – but I only agreed to join SGM on the understanding that I could get my old team back," Johansen said. "I asked them whether they were ready to do it again – and they were immediately hooked on the idea."
A further stimulus to the new SGM R&D team was the belief that there was huge potential for development. "You are still seeing copies of products dating back to 1993 and 1994. If this had not been the case, I would have had no intention of coming back."
Summing up, Johansen said, "It's really exciting to be able to give my old team the opportunity to work on developing exclusive products. They are extremely enthusiastic and I can see the progress we are making from day to day."
Vicari, who described Johansen as an "icon of the lighting industry," noted that "when RCF Group went public in 2007, the goal was to grow and to reach a significant position within our business.
"Our main business has always been audio – but last year we decided to look for some other synergies and decided to acquire SGM, a manufacturer of lighting systems mainly for the professional market.
"While SGM was a consolidated brand in the lighting market, it needed a significant restructuring. This we did, and although SGM can now successfully compete in the market, the growth of SGM, as it was, still did not have the momentum that we wanted.
"We started to look for someone that could drive the company out of that situation and when I had the opportunity to talk to Peter Johansen, I knew that he was the person we were looking for.
"To meet someone like Peter at just the right time was pure luck, and we are delighted to welcome such an iconic figure to head up our new R&D team. He and his engineers in Denmark are already well into an exciting development program and we look forward to showing the first results of this at Pro Light + Sound in Frankfurt next spring. It's great to have him on board with us."
After leaving the lighting industry in 1998, Johansen spent his time working mainly in the yachting and wind turbine industries.
However, his first venture was to set up Nitram Dental (‘Martin' spelt backwards), which he eventually sold to Siemens. Converting smoke machine technology, he developed a product to clean, lubricate and sterilize dental handpieces and turbines in a single working process.
He also started the Royal Denship yacht-building company and Dencam, which became the biggest manufacturer of large scale milling and plugs for the wind turbine industry, which he sold in 2007.
Johansen developed several other successful companies, including Lantic Systems, which provided entertainment systems for super yachts and for private homes; Royal Tender, which makes luxury accessories for mega yachts, and Camcom, which offered plugs, molds and other components for the wind power industry.
Along the way, Johansen set up a factory in Thailand, where windmill blades were made under the Martin Industrial Group brand. His manufacturing resources are also likely to be used for some of SGM Lighting's future production.
For more information, please visit www.sgm.it.
