In order to bring an OSF participant to the attention, OSF highlights an OSF participant twice a month via its online channels. AAA-LUX 
enables innovative LED lighting in many different locations. We spoke with Michel van Dooren.
Brief introduction about yourself and AAA-LUX?
My name is Michel van Dooren, responsible for Marketing & Business Development. AAA-LUX is a manufacturer of LED lighting for sports fields, stadiums and industrial applications such as ports and airports. We had a world premiere in 2009 by being the first with a LED retrofit solution to light a tennis court, football field and hockey field in Eindhoven. We now have a leading position with more than 1,000 projects in almost 40 countries on 5 continents. We are based in Eindhoven where, in addition to development, marketing and sales, the final assembly takes place, with a total of 45 employees and also around 30 partner companies all over the world. AAA-LUX is strong in maintaining an infrastructure. That means – for a football club for example – that lighting poles and cabling are retained, which lowers the investment threshold.
What is the purpose of AAA-LUX abroad?
Although we are fairly small in terms of company size, we are in a world market and compete with large lighting companies. We do this by entering into partnerships with specialized partners abroad, who we train to sell, install and master the AAA-LUX service. The trick is to find the right companies that can take us further. Expanding this network is an important goal for the coming years.
Can you give some concrete examples of successful projects in the Netherlands or abroad?
You have to imagine that the Netherlands is way ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to applying LED lighting on sports fields. That is our merit. Meanwhile, hundreds of Dutch associations have LED lighting on their outdoor sports fields. I would like to call that our greatest success in the Netherlands, but perhaps the training complex of AZ Alkmaar in Wijdewormer is more well known.
Outside the country we have, for example, illuminated a stadium in the Italian Serie A, the training complexes of Schalke04, 1899 Hoffenheim, Huddersfield Town and the Czech Football Association, training stadiums in Qatar for the WC2022, the basketball stadium of Asvel, the champion of France, the Davis Cup / WTA tennis halls of Belgium and Switzerland, various hockey and football stadiums and a long list of amateur clubs, ports and airports all over the world.
People sometimes look at the number of projects and the appealing names on our reference list. We have built up a good reputation among insiders in the market, but the general public does not yet know our name. We have a nice challenge ahead of us, these coming years.
Why did you become a member of OSF?
The most important thing is to expand our network. Within OSF there are a number of existing relationships and a few potential new partners where we could make high-quality light. But especially the network abroad offers nice opportunities. The Netherlands plays a pioneering role when it comes to LED lighting for applications as mentioned. We can be very proud of that and OSF can spread this message internationally.