Peter Johansen joins SGM
Published: ASIA
WORLD:After leaving the lighting industry more than a decade ago, Peter Johansen has returned to lead SGM Lighting’s product development programme.
Mr Johansen, who founded Martin Professional in 1987, has joined SGM as director of R&D. Based in Aarhus, Denmark, with eight of his former R&D team, Mr Johansen will oversee parallel development of a series of conventional discharge moving lights and LED fixtures.
Mr Johansen said he had no intention of re-entering the lighting industry once his 10 year non-compete contract had expired following the sale of Martin Professional. However, after meeting Arturo Vicari managing director of the RCF Group (of which SGM is a part), the deal was struck. ‘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,’ he explained. ‘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 1993-94. If this had not been the case I would have had no intention of coming back,’ he explained.
‘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,’ Mr Johansen concluded.
‘Our main business has always been audio, but last year we decided to look for some other synergies and decided to acquire SGM,’ explained Mr Vicari. ‘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, 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 programme and we look forward to showing the first results of this at Pro Light + Soundin Frankfurt next Spring.’