Swedish lighting company Wästberg announces investment by Australian lighting specialists XAL. The partnership signifies a major step forward for the Swedish lighting brand.
Wästberg, the Swedish lighting company founded by Magnus Wästberg in 2008, has announced a new partnership with XAL, the Austrian lighting specialists. The move sees Magnus Wästberg and XAL buy-out the founding shareholders and XAL become the sole minority partner in the business.
Wästberg has collaborated with some of the world’s leading architects and designers including David Chipperfield, Ilse Crawford, Sam Hecht and Kim Colin of Industrial Facility, Inga Sempé, Oki Sato, Jasper Morrison and John Pawson and XAL’s investment is a strong endorsement of Wästberg’s position as an independent, design-focused lighting company. More importantly, the arrangement signals a step-change in the evolution of Wästberg, giving the brand immediate access to the R&D, production and distribution resources of one of the best technical lighting producers in the world.
Magnus Wästberg remains as Wästberg’s CEO and the majority stakeholder in the business and Wästberg will remain an independent company and brand, which will continue to be headquartered in Sweden. The deal will also see Wästberg produce the majority of their lamps at XAL’s state of the art production facilities in Austria and Slovenia and XAL’s sales teams represent the Wästberg brand world-wide.
See below for a short Q&A with CEO Magnus Wästberg.
We speak with CEO Magnus Wästberg to learn more about the partnership.
ArchiExpo e-Magazine: In what ways will this partnership help increase the growth rate of Wästberg?
Magnus Wästberg: By partnering with Austrian lighting company XAL, Wästberg will benefit from instant access to their extensive R&D department, as well as their innovative production facilities and distribution resources.
ArchiExpo e-Magazine: Will this change affect how the two brands collaborate? If so, how?
Magnus Wästberg: This is our first partnership with XAL. The support of XAL provides the perfect partnership for the next chapter in the evolution of Wästberg. It is a partnership where we will continue to have the core values and culture of a family run company coupled with the resources of a big one.
ArchiExpo e-Magazine: Can you give us some ideas the company will be working on since this partnership?
Magnus Wästberg: It is too early to comment on this, but what I can say is that because of the new partnership and growth in the business, Wästberg will have new possibilities to create truly good lighting, to fully explore the ideas generated in our collaborations and to take advantage of all the opportunities presented by the rapid development of technology. And last, but definitely not the least; to be able to offer the best value for money.
ArchiExpo e-Magazine: In what ways do you think the rapid development of technology will impact your lighting solutions?
Magnus Wästberg: XAL has one of the most knowledgeable R&D departments I have seen and they are truly at the forefront of lighting development. This will of course mean that we will take further steps in terms of using technology to develop products with a clear purpose to meet fundamental human needs, both physical and emotional.
About Wästberg
In close collaboration with leading architects and designers, Wästberg’s aim is to create well-being through good light. Wästberg creates technologically driven, economically viable and environmentally conscious lighting. Lighting that answers to fundamental human needs, both physical and emotional, and adapts to these needs as they evolve and shift.
About XAL
XAL’s success story started over 30 years ago. Since then, XAL has been working with lighting designers, architects and planners to develop custom luminaires of the highest technical standard, which impress with their style and aesthetics. The XAL group, headquartered in Graz, Austria, now has 1,300 employees worldwide and 30 international subsidiaries. Whether for retail spaces of world-class brands, modern offices and headquarters, exclusive hotels, restaurants, or private homes, there is always one goal: to push the boundaries of the technically feasible, enabling visionary designs. Founded in the early 80s as one of the first design lighting companies in the Benelux countries, WEVER & DUCRÉ has been part of the XAL groups since 2011. Today it is an international brand that exports to 60 countries worldwide. In order to be as close to the customer as possible, the WEVER & DUCRÉ international sales team is represented throughout the main European countries and Asia.
