Memphis-based Hunter Fan Company in 2020 dipped its toe into the waters of lighting fixtures — pendant, chandelier, flush mount and others — but is diving headfirst in 2021.

The oldest and largest maker of ceiling fans last year introduced about 25 distinct styles of lighting fixtures installed on ceilings or walls. They are light fixtures only; they are not attached to ceiling fans. 

Memphis-based Hunter Fan launches lighting collection

This year, the company’s goal is to offer a much broader array of light fixtures in addition to its many hundreds of ceiling fan products.

Fleshing out the new type of product is one of several ways Hunter Fan plans to mark its 135th year in 2021, John Neilson told The Daily Memphian.

“We’re pretty excited about that,” the chief marketing officer said of the new lighting-fixture-only products. “Our products will start to be available this month, and we’ll do a larger launch” starting in July.

Neilson leads marketing for the firm headquartered at 7130 Goodlett Farms Parkway. That’s where about 135 Hunter Fan executives, engineers, industrial designers, finance staff and others work when there’s not a pandemic. Since last March, most have worked from home.

Hunter Fan was born in New York state, and moved to Memphis in 1946 and 1949.

The company sells 4 million fans a year.

This year, Hunter also will release its latest innovations for ceiling fans that are remotely controlled using WiFi. Called SIMPLEconnect fans, they also can be controlled with voice commands in concert with Apple, Google and Amazon products.

The company also plans to release this year more versions of its new outdoor fans, dubbed WeatherMax. They are resistant to salt air and corrosion.

And Hunter plans to expand its partnership this year with the St. Jude Dream Home event that raises money for the children’s research hospital. Hunter Fan will provide ceiling fans and light fixtures to St. Jude Dream Homes in five markets across the U.S.

A growing emphasis on e-commerce sales threads through nearly all of Hunter Fan’s plans for 2021.

Online sales

The trend, accelerated by the pandemic, was a factor in the company creating a new position last year, director of e-commerce.

The company has placed an emphasis on e-commerce since Neilson came aboard seven years ago. But the pandemic has accelerated online activity by about three to five years, Neilson said.

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The presence of e-commerce takes many forms for the company: Direct-to-consumer sales through its own website, HunterFan.com; Amazon; and the online sales through retailers like Home Depot, Lowe’s and Costco.

Now that people are spending more time at home because of COVID-19, they are tackling more home-improvement jobs. Included in those DIY tasks are the installation of ceiling fans, Neilson said.

“At the core of what we do, we help consumers enhance the spaces where they live, work and play, he said, adding that demand for Hunter Fan’s products rose last year.

“Also, younger consumers are gaining new skills, primarily through YouTube,” he said. “The whole do-it-yourself movement in general is really growing.”

Energy-saving responses to an even larger problem — global warming — may boost demand for ceiling fans, too.

“A ceiling fan inherently increases your comfort,” Neilson said. “It allows you to raise the thermostat a couple degrees and that reduces the need for electricity. It reduces the need for refrigerants, for HVAC.”

Hunter Fan commands about 30% of the ceiling fan market, by far the largest share, Neilson said, adding that the second-place company has about 10% of the market.

As customers shift from brick-and-mortar to online shopping, Hunter Fan’s market share will only rise, Neilson said.

“We can offer a broader selection online than inside a Lowe’s or Home Depot, which have a limited amount of (display) space. ... And secondly, we have the leading brand. When consumers want to ensure they have good quality, we have a great reputation as they move to e-commerce,” he said.

Air speed

Hunter Fan learned something important through testing its fans with volunteers.

Perceived comfort is more affected by the air speed created by fan blades than the volume of air moved by the blades.

That’s the central idea behind what Hunter Fan calls its SureSpeed Guarantee. The company commits that its fans produce a 20% higher air-flow velocity than Hunter Fan’s top competitors.

“If it’s 95 degrees outside and your air conditioner is cranking as hard as it can, you want to really feel the breeze inside,” said Erin Shelton, the company’s senior brand marketing manager. “And that doesn’t’ always translate with CFM (cubic feet per minute). You need that air-flow velocity.”

Think about it, Neilson said. “You don’t feel CFM if you go outside. It’s how many miles per hour is the wind blowing. That’s what you feel.”

Faster spinning blades don’t cause the air to move faster. Instead, the velocity is attained with the blade design and how the blades are matched to the motor, he said.

“Most of our competitors essentially have a flat board, a flat paddle. We added some aerodynamic elements in some ways,” he said.

Company headquarters

Hunter Fan occupies the 7130 Goodlett Farms office building with Regions Bank and a few smaller tenants. On one wing, Hunter Fan takes the fourth floor, third floor and basement.

On Tuesday, Jan. 19, the building was mostly vacant as it has been since March, because of the pandemic. But product testing must continue, so several masked engineers worked in the basement.

The basement includes about a dozen testing spaces. In one room on Tuesday, a metal structure positioned 45 velocity sensors 43 inches beneath the blades of a ceiling fan.

Down the hall were other small testing stations, nearly a dozen in all. 

Among them was one small space that was partitioned from the hall by clear, shower curtain-like material. That’s where Hunter Fan tests its outdoor fans by spraying water on them for four hours at a time.

In another space, blade supports were connected to a fan motor on one side and heavy pieces of metal on the other side, where a much lighter blade would normally be. A machine shakes the brackets for an hour to test their strength.

Other stations test fans for quietness, the durability of components as well as other reasons.

In addition to its in-house engineering team, Hunter Fan has an in-house design team.

“A lot of other companies, they are farming that out to various vendors,” Shelton said. “It’s something we have kept internal and have actually continued to grow.”

“For 135 years, Hunter Fan Company has set the standard for quality and innovation in the ceiling fan industry, and we are continuing to look for that next level of product,” chief executive John Alexander said in a prepared statement.

“We have a team of in-house designers and engineers that are constantly questioning how we can do more. Our history is important to us, but what is more important is our future,” he said.