CoeLux^® have been awarded with the European Innovation Prize for Retail 2017

The retail industry is producing the 31% of the world GNP and secures billions of direct and indirect job units. From the haute couture to the malls, from automotive dealers to furniture shops, the B2C is the ultimate ring of the distribution chain and stands for a very notable profit margin. The sector is estimated to have achieved revenues of US$ 22.6 trillion in 2015 and should continue to rise to US$ 28 trillion by 2019 (source: Research and Markets).

The retail industry pushes to change skin in order to acquire new distinctive marks to compete with the revolutionary dimension of the e-commerce.

“I’m not a retailer, I’m an entertainer”, Mr Alberto Baldan (Rinascente CEO and leading retail expert) recently told to Mark Up magazine.

Milan, Paris or Berlin: it’s just needed the time for a glance on advertising billboards and vitrines or to slip over to a fashion boutique or to a mall to understand how the shopping activities have been radically changed. Who is today choosing the physical retail option is less focused on the product (customers are quite often entering the shops without having decided what to buy) and always more interested to the experience to acquire, to that entertainment the retailer is able to offer.

The CoeLux^® technology has been awarded as the sole winner at the European Innovation Prize for Retail 2017: this prize is given to the most accurate and amazing artificial solar and skylight reproduction in indoor spaces and comes after several important, similar awards in other international contests dedicated to technological innovation in lighting.

The members of German Council of Shopping Centers (GCSC) are yearly evaluating and examining inherent projects coming from the entire Europe with the collaboration of an independent jury of experts. Submitted by its German dealer Amptown System Company GmbH, CoeLux^® has been evaluated as the best among 28 entries covering all the most diverse technological sectors in retail industry. At its fifth edition, the 2017 European Innovation Prize for Retail is special because has been awarded for the first time to a lighting company.

The award ceremony took place on January 26, 2017 at Cinestar Metropolis (Frankfurt, Germany). Professor Paolo Di Trapani, CoeLux^® CEO, collected the prize and the company has been also represented by Ms Cinzia Tagliabue, CoeLux^® Europe Key Account Manager.

European Innovation Prize for Retail Jury awarded all the High-End product line submitted (CoeLux^® 45 HC, CoeLux^® 45 LC, CoeLux^® 45 SQUARE and CoeLux^® 60). They excel for the faithful reproduction of either the light and the almost infinite natural wideness as in presence of a window or of a big skylight.

The sensory ad sensitive experience driven by CoeLux^® technology allows retail users to do not interrupt their natural, physical and chemical dialogue with the solar wellness also inside the malls or during adverse weather conditions and in the darkest seasons. The wide ceiling openings irradiating sky portions and sun stand for the best answer to valorise brands on sale which are already convinced that artificial, uniform light is not working enough anymore (some companies, as Abercrombie, are rather preferring to use sculptural light in full darkened interiors to enhance their outfits).

CoeLux^® uses a LED technology based on the use of nano-structured materials able to rebuild the physical processes of sunlight in the sky: it is the sole able to offer retail spaces an attractiveness that has never imagined before.

Since CoeLux^® inception, many important industry members installed one or more systems in their retail spaces - among them, big brands shifting from furniture to fashion to lifestyle.

The Italian Boffi valorised the flagship showroom located in Milan; the Spanish Inditex (that owned the Zara brand), placed 17 CoeLux^® 60 and CoeLux^® 45 for the high end brand Uterqüe flagship stores. Laufen and Nike have acquired the innovative technology for their latest booths or retail spaces.

“I would have bet that Nordics had bought our systems as first” says Paolo Di Trapani, the CoeLux^® founder and CEO, “but it’s equally nice to be astonished by the sunniest countries, as Italy and Spain, who have moved first to use it!”

The company had recently developed a second generation of products, the line CoeLux^® ST (Sky Tales), offering a mediated and not direct vision of sun-lights and sky. In this products the light is reflected, diffused, diffracted or absorbed by the water, the snow, the leaves, the fog and so on.

This spectacular output is operated by less expensive, less heavy and less wide than the High-End devices that are anyway the top of the product family thanks to their window size.

The official launch of the line CoeLux^® ST - in its three initial versions: - CoeLux^® ST NAOS, CoeLux^® ST TIVANO and CoeLux^® ST IBLA - happened on November 23, 2016 in London at LuxLive fair, receiving the qualification of #1 product within the top ten by the fair organizers. The following ST editions and version will be launched to the next lighting fairs.

CoeLux^® ST stands as small revolution in CoeLux^® microcosm because is easy to be installed in few minutes and allows to reset substantially the overall appearance of the artificial window and the type of ambient illumination even by replacing a single optical unit. With CoeLux^® ST it’s easy to modify the distribution of the light or to emphasize one or both the effects (illuminating the products, rebuilding the sky in interiors): its versatility is crucial in retail spaces where promotions and seasonality dictate the spatial distribution.

Since their fortunate debut, CoeLux^® systems are also applied in hospitals, accommodation industry, offices, wellness centres and spa, airports, museums, houses and might be used even in tight spaces as elevators or in transportation means, as subways.