If you wanted to light your pool in 1982, the only option available was a high-voltage incandescent light that had been responsible for a number of deaths by electrocution. The dangerous lighting inspired Rick and Sharon Grant to work on developing a safer option: fiber optic lighting. The Grants’ light was the first of its kind to hit the market, but since it was so much more expensive to produce than traditional pool lighting, they struggled to sell it. Even though that first light wasn’t the sea change for pool safety they had hoped, it became the first product available from O’Ryan Industries, when the Grants officially opened for business two years later.
Engineer Rick Grant realized that while fiber optic lighting might still be too expensive for most pool consumers, his innovative light could have other uses. The dental industry had just developed dental filling material, but without a way to cure it, the material was utterly useless. It turned out that fiber optic lighting was the perfect solution, and O’Ryan Industries had its first nationally successful product on the market, selling hundreds of dental lights in all 50 states.
Today, Vancouver-based O’Ryan Industries continues working to develop new types of lighting solutions and to improve upon old designs. The cornerstone of their success is a diverse business, but most of their products pay homage to their pool lighting roots; nearly all of their products are intended for use in and around water. However, O’Ryan Industries also has a robust commercial lighting branch of the business. Their primary goal is to help businesses in the community and around the country become more economically and environmentally sustainable by investing in efficient and durable LED lighting.
In addition to O’Ryan’s diversified sales departments, they have one of the few development and manufacturing facilities in the United States.
Rick Grant explained that while the company cannot compete with the prices of lighting that’s mass-produced abroad, maintaining a development and manufacturing element in the United States has allowed O’Ryan to offer high-quality custom solutions, especially to commercial customers who may not find a satisfactory LED lighting solution on the mass market. This commitment to producing products locally has paid off; O’Ryan has been able to establish itself as a national leader not only in pool and spa lighting, but also in custom commercial lighting.
The Grants are hopeful that in the next several years, they can get back into the dental lighting that first put them on the map, though new FDA regulations make that a costly proposition while pool and spa lighting is relatively more affordable to produce and allows them to develop new creative ideas (like a “party mode” that cycles their LED lights through eight different colors or a fishing lure that uses the LED lighting technology to draw fish to the bait).
According to the Grants, the key to O’Ryan industries is that they offer a product for everyone, and they are able to offer the personalized service needed to convince businesses to make the shift toward more sustainable lighting. The company does custom audits to help people interested in making the switch to LED lighting learn more about how a new system can change their usage and cost.
The Grants estimate that every custom lighting solution they offer can pay for itself in energy savings in the first year, not to mention the reduced carbon footprint of the cooler burning and longer lasting light. In fact, O’Ryan Industries is in the process of rolling out a new company motto: “LED lighting is the best investment you will ever make for your business.”
O’Ryan Industries
www.oryanindustries.com 12711 N.E. 95th St., Vancouver Founded 1984
