Henderson Wholesale Lamps wants to expand its footprint

SOLVAY — Henderson Wholesale Lamps, LLC has a customer base that’s primarily in Onondaga County, but the firm would like to expand its footprint across Central New York.

“We’ve already started that a little bit,” says David Henderson, the company’s sole owner, noting the business has serviced referrals from outside the county. 

Henderson Wholesale Lamps, which sells lighting to wholesale and commercial customers, is located in a 1,500-square-foot space at 1427 Milton Ave. as the street winds its way through the village of Solvay.

About 85 percent of the firm’s customers are located in Onondaga County, but it would like to attract customers in the neighboring counties as well. 

Henderson Wholesale Lamps services customers from Madison and Oneida counties who pick up their products while making trips to Syracuse. 

Its business customers “have employees that make … runs into Syracuse twice a week, so they’ll just come in and pick their

up,” says Rachel Henderson Kelly, the company’s director of sales and marketing. 

The company also has customers in Oswego and Auburn who drive to Solvay to pick up their lighting products, David Henderson added. 

“Everything we buy is for re-sale. Everything we sell is new. We really don’t look for retail business,” he notes.

The business
Henderson, who started the company nine years ago, says his customer base includes property-management companies, factories, electrical contractors, general contractors, churches, nonprofit organizations. 

Some specific customers include Syracuse–based Sutton Companies, DeWitt–based Longley Jones Management Corp., Syracuse–based Pemco Group, Inc., and Onondaga County government, according to Henderson.

Since launching his company in 2007, Henderson figures he’s sold products to about 300 customers, noting that some are one-time buyers.

The product line includes fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs, light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs, along with LED fixtures, exit signs, replacement batteries, and emergency lights. 

The company declined to disclose any revenue information.

Henderson’s wife, Pamela, started working for the business in 2013, handling administrative duties and enabling David Henderson to devote more time to his outside-sales efforts. 

The Hendersons’ daughter, Rachel Henderson Kelly, joined the company in February as director of sales and marketing.

The Hendersons are proud of having a family-operated business, something that Rachel Henderson Kelly contends is “becoming more and more rare” in the region.

Henderson Wholesale Lamps is an authorized distributor for Ellwood City, Pennsylvania–based Appalachian Lighting Systems, Inc., manufacturer of LED lighting fixtures, according to its website.

The firm’s suppliers include Cooper Lighting, a subsidiary of Houston, Texas–based Eaton Corp.; Shawnee, Kansas–based EiKO Global, LLC; Salem, Virginia–based Green Energy Concepts Inc; Laurel, Mississippi–based Howard Industries; West Caldwell, New Jersey–based MaxLite, Inc.; and Ontario, California–based Plusrite, according to the site. 

“We made some good connections over the years, and there’s people that we started with and they’ve grown with us,” says David Henderson.