Kenall Manufacturing
10200 55th St., Kenosha
Industry: Lighting manufacturer
Employees: 450
kenall.com
Ken Hawkins founded Kenall Manufacturing in Chicago in 1963. His son Jim assumed sole ownership of the company in 1983 and has been the primary architect of its accelerated growth.
Kenall began as the first lighting manufacturer to make vandal-resistant polycarbonate lighting for high-abuse applications. It began with public housing, and later expanded into dormitories, correctional facilities, parking garages, schools, hospitals, public transportation facilities and other demanding environments.
Today, Kenall has shifted from traditional technologies, such as fluorescent, high-intensity discharge and incandescent, to LED.
LED lighting is more efficient than previous technologies. The combination of energy efficiency, long life and color selection appeals to commercial lighting designers, architects and engineers, and continues to help drive the company’s growth.
New product lines including the Indigo-Clean Continuous Environmental Disinfection, advanced sensors, networked communications and color-tuning.
“We are going through a paradigm shift in our industry in the sense that lighting fixtures are becoming smart devices,” said Jim Hawkins, chairman and chief executive officer.
Lighting is changing from traditional bulbs and high intensity discharge lamps to semiconductor-based, solid-state lighting and controls systems.
“Lights have the capacity to be smart in that they can monitor the environment and adjust to it, in addition to providing robust reporting and other capabilities,” he said.
The company is just beginning to scratch the surface of what the new solid-state lighting can do, and plans to continue to explore new opportunities with the technology.
Kenall is also adding to its Indigo-Clean product line.
“As we move toward a post-antibiotic era, having an effective, safe method of killing bacteria is critical,” Hawkins said. “The health care systems with hospitals that have installed Indigo-Clean have gotten amazing results and are adding it in their other facilities.”
In 2014, Kenall relocated from Gurnee, Illinois to Kenosha. The company purchased 32 acres in the Kenosha Business Park and constructed a new $25 million headquarters that includes a new fiber laser material sheet stock cutting machine, multiple press brakes, welding equipment and increased fabrication capacity. In addition, Kenall now has a state-of-the-art testing facility, a showroom, and an additional 13 acres adjacent to its current headquarters for future expansion.
The employee count and revenue have increased steadily, and Hawkins expects that trend to continue.
In 2016, Kenall earned its ISO 9000 certification and hired internal counsel to handle the company’s intellectual property. The company is currently seeking to fill additional positions.
In addition to valued relationships with the surrounding communities, Kenall has established and continues to cultivate its relationship with Gateway Technical College.
In 2016, the company made a $250,000 donation to the Gateway Promise Program, a scholarship initiative to ensure all qualifying students seeking an education in the college’s district will be able to do so tuition-free. The company donated an additional $75,000 to the Promise program this year.
Because of Kenall’s commitment, Gateway has named its newly renovated law enforcement training center the Kenall Protective Services Training Center.
In addition to Gateway, Kenall has integrated itself in the Kenosha community by giving back to other organizations, like the Milwaukee Homeless Veterans Initiative, Kenosha Common Markets Inc., Make-A-Wish Wisconsin, ALS Association Wisconsin and Building Our Future Kenosha County.
