Home

History

1948 - Lee B. Thomas, with a group of investors, acquired a residential lighting fixture company from the Moe family of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. In 1949, the company’s name was changed from Moe Brothers to Moe Light, Inc.
1952 - Lighting fixture production expanded with the purchase of the Star Lighting Fixture Company of Los Angeles, California and the opening of a residential lighting factory in Princeton, Kentucky.
1953 - Moe Light, Inc. was merged into the Electric Sprayit Company of Sheboygan, Wisconsin; a paint sprayer manufacturer and the name was changed to Thomas Industries, Inc.
1955 - Thomas Industries Incorporated moved its headquarters to Louisville, Kentucky.
1958 - Thomas Industries acquired the Benjamin Electric Company and C&M Products of Canada.
1967 - Thomas Industries’ stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Throughout the sixties and seventies, Thomas continued to diversify its product lines, acquiring companies that manufactured a wide range of products from paint brushes to central vacuum systems.
1985 - Thomas entered into a joint venture with ASF GmbH & Co KG, a major player in air compressor and vacuum pump technologies.
1989 - Thomas realigned its operating divisions into two groups and defined a long-range goal of concentrating on its two core businesses: Lighting and Compressors/Vacuum Pumps. Non-core businesses were divested.
1998 - In the company’s 50th year, Thomas Industries and the Genlyte Group entered into a joint venture, creating Genlyte Thomas Group LLC.
2002 - Thomas Industries, Inc. announced another major acquisition of Werner Rietschle GmbH + Co. KG, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of precision-engineered pumps and compressors, creating Rietschle Thomas.
2005 - Gardner Denver, Inc., the leading manufacturer of compressed air, gas, vacuum and fluid transfer technologies worldwide acquires Thomas Industries, Inc. OEM pump technologies are now consolidated in Thomas Division.