CINCINNATI, May 28 — LSI Industries Inc. (Nasdaq: LYTS, “LSI” or the “Company”), a leading U.S. based manufacturer of commercial lighting and display solutions, today announced a strategic partnership (the “Partnership”) with privately held Carter Thermal Industries Group (“Carter”), a global leader in refrigeration and environmental controls solutions. Under the terms of the agreement, LSI will become the exclusive partner throughout the United States and Canada for advanced refrigerated display and store solutions developed by U.K.-based Carter, effective May 28, 2026.
Founded in 1945, Carter specializes in the design, engineering, installation, and maintenance of large-scale refrigeration installations used within retail food environments. The Partnership represents LSI’s formal expansion into remote refrigeration, whereby centralized cooling systems regulate multiple cold-storage and merchandising cases, which contrasts with LSI’s existing offering of primarily self-contained refrigeration systems. By adding Carter’s remote refrigeration technologies, LSI will expand its solutions offering, providing customers with a broader range of sustainable, energy-efficient refrigeration solutions for modern retail spaces.
Under the Partnership, LSI will market, manufacture, sell, and support refrigeration systems designed by Carter. LSI intends to produce co-branded remote refrigeration units across its existing North American manufacturing footprint, providing scalable production capabilities, competitive manufacturing lead times, and enhanced flexibility to support customer rollout requirements.
VALUE-CREATING PARTNERSHIP
- Advances single-source retail branding solutions platform strategy. Through a disciplined combination of organic investment, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships, LSI continues to build a retail branding solutions platform of scale that integrates lighting, graphics, display fixtures, refrigerated merchandising, and installation capabilities into a unified offering for multi-site customers. LSI’s targeted vertical market strategy has positioned the Company as a single-source partner capable of supporting national rollouts, remodel programs, and brand transformation initiatives across its core vertical markets.
- Partnership provides an immediate, low-cost entry into remote refrigeration market. LSI believes the partnership with Carter provides an accelerated, capital-light entry point into the remote refrigeration market. Under a licensing agreement with Carter, LSI will become the exclusive North American partner for Carter’s certified, market-tested remote refrigeration units and freezer cases.
- Expanded solutions offering targeting core grocery and retail markets. LSI believes its expanded refrigeration solutions offering will create additional opportunities across its existing customer base, particularly with multi-site grocery and retail customers seeking larger-scale remote refrigeration solutions. The expanded offering will enable LSI’s customers to source both self-contained and remote refrigerated display solutions from a single North American partner with integrated manufacturing, distribution, and support capabilities.
- Leverages LSI’s existing manufacturing capabilities. With 23 manufacturing sites across the U.S. and Canada, including existing facilities specializing in the manufacture of refrigeration units, LSI intends to deploy existing capacity toward the assembly and production of Carter-designed units, over time, consistent with a focus on asset optimization.
MANAGEMENT COMMENTARY
“Our strategic partnership with Carter provides LSI with an immediate, capital-light entry point into the remote refrigeration market, as we continue to build our integrated retail branding solutions platform across North America,” stated Jim Clark, President and Chief Executive Officer of LSI Industries. “Carter’s engineering expertise and proven technology, combined with LSI’s manufacturing footprint, deep customer relationships, and proven support capabilities, position us to accelerate profitable growth across our integrated portfolio of refrigeration solutions. We look forward to building on this important partnership in the years ahead.”
“Our businesses share a common commitment to quality, innovation, customer service, and long-term partnership,” said Chris Hufflett, Group Chief Executive Officer at Carter Thermal Industries Group. “We are pleased to work alongside LSI and look forward to supporting retailers with high-quality refrigeration solutions designed to meet the evolving needs of the market.”