ES Horn Belysning

From its inception in the early 1950s, ES Horn Belysning was one of the most commercially successful lamp producers in Denmark, with a catalogue that made up in reliable quality for what it lacked in originality – most of its product lines being more or less directly derived from designs produced by the small handful of top-tier Danish lighting companies. Avoiding costly product development and using cheaper production methods, Horn was able to offer affordable mass-market versions of lamps whose originals sometimes cost as much as a week's average wage. Ironically, Horn ended up owning several of the producers whose output it emulated when in 1991 it acquired Lyskaer-Lyfa, a conglomerate led by another mass-market producer Lyskaer Belysning which had already absorbed Fog & Mørup and Abo Randers along with Lyfa. In 2005 Horn changed its name to Lightyears, and in 2015 Lightyears was incorporated into prestigious Danish cabinetmakers Fritz Hansen.