When Pine Tree Lighting was founded in 1976 by Ken and Geneva Latshaw, the primary focus of the business was to service the lighting needs of builders and their homeowner clients. Almost thirty years later, Pine Tree Lighting now operates close to their original location at 1405 S. Lapeer Road in Lake Orion, Michigan. With over 75 percent of the company's volume related to new home lighting and accessories. The team at Pine Tree Lighting understands the needs and demands of the new home construction market, and has an unyielding dedication to servicing those unique requirements.
The staff at Pine Tree Lighting is comprised of a group of seasoned, knowledgeable professionals each possessing a minimum of 10 years' experience in the lighting industry. As Pine Tree Lighting embarks on its second generation of family leadership, Ken and Geneva's son, Dennis Latshaw, oversees the showroom and warehouse activities, their daughter, Diane Christopher, is responsible for office operations and purchasing, their son-in-law, Mike Belesky, coordinates builder sales and account supervision.
Mike states, "Service continues to be a main priority for us. Our objective is to address all lighting concerns for the builder. That means assisting their homeowner clients with selections, ensuring fixtures are delivered, complete with bulbs, to the home site in boxes marked with appropriate room locations, and returning to the site if there are any lighting problems to resolve."
To provide prompt, consistent service and delivery, Pine Tree Lighting has personnel assigned exclusively to builder accounts. Mike continues, "Our reputation is built on providing superior service. If there is a question regarding a delivery, or if a fixture needs to be exchanged or repaired, the builder calls our service department and our service personnel will visit the home site. The builder or electrician does not have to take time out of their schedule to make a special trip to our warehouse."
Homeowners' visiting Pine Tree's showroom will discover an enormous selection of fixtures to choose from, as well as some unexpected items for their home. Diane Christopher notes, "In addition to lighting fixtures, we also offer standard, decorative and custom mirrors, framed artwork, floor lamps, table lamps, Tiffanies, wrought iron furniture, outdoor patio furniture, gas grills, log sets, accessories, and much more. Customers regularly tell us how convenient it is for them to be able to shop for these accessories at a single location, plus they love our prices. Since introducing our mirror and accessory inventory, our retail traffic has improved significantly."
A member of Pine Tree Lighting's sales staff works personally with each custom home client, carefully reviewing their home plan room by room for lighting requirements. They offer suggestions for fixture type and placement, and will often walk through the home with the client at rough-in construction stage to make sure the selected lighting plan fits the home.
Pine Tree also offers lighting packages. Lighting packages allow builders to consistently price lighting fixtures for a particular home plan, and the builder may offer the homeowner the option to upgrade certain fixtures. Pine Tree is able to keep a substantial inventory of fixtures for these designated lighting packages, ensuring product availability on demand.
While the manufacturer product lines offered at Pine Tree Lighting are too numerous to detail, high-lights include such familiar industry standards as Forecast, Progress, Corbett, Maxim, Quorum, Craftmade, and Thomas, design-oriented fixtures from Cristal, Fine Art, Kalco, Minka Lavery, H.A. Framburg, Frederick Raymond, Murray Feiss, crystal lines from Schonbek, Stiffel, and made-to-order pieces from Hart & Associates.
Diane comments, "We offer a wide range of fixtures and have a very strong relationship with the manufacturers we carry. For many, we are their largest account in the state of Michigan and for others nationwide. What that means to our customers is priority response and delivery, which will be extremely helpful when a lighting order needs immediate attention."
Pine Tree Lighting has earned a reputation of offering competitive pricing, a complete range of quality lighting fixtures, and exceptional service. Throughout Southeast Michigan, leading builders have selected Pine Tree as their lighting supplier. Dennis relates, "We specialize in lighting for builders. We strive to take care of our builder clients and their homeowners, and make sure they are satisfied with the products and service we provide. Service is our motto. Once we begin servicing a builder, our objective is to do everything we can to retain their business.