news

  • Jan 22, 2021

Meet the Team: Kurt Puffpaff

Kurt Puffpaff ROCKS! Though in Kurt’s case, we mean that quite literally. A musician and music aficionado, Kurt plays guitar, sings, and is a huge fan of ‘70s rock bands like AC/DC, Styx and Led Zeppelin. He also writes and records his own original tunes, played on his favorite Birdseye Maple Les Paul guitar. Besides his love for music, Kurt is an avid outdoorsman and a die-hard Kansas City Chiefs fan.

Born and raised in Charlevoix, Michigan, Kurt has moved around the Midwest for his career before returning to his hometown a few years ago and settling with his wife Diane and their four sons, aged from 11 to 22.

Kurt is currently the National Sales Manager for A.L.P.’s custom optical products, but he has been in the lighting industry since 1993. He started his career as a territory manager for LexaLite (now part of A.L.P.) where he learned the business from the ground up, even delivering a few orders by truck when the business depended on it. Drawing on his decades of expertise in injection molding, Kurt can answer almost any molding question that comes his way. You are also invited to pick his brain on classic rock, football, or hunting.


, , , , , , , , ,
  • Dec 17, 2020

Meet the Team: Alan Dorsky

At one of Alan Dorsky’s first sales meetings with A.L.P., he was kind enough to include a pronunciation guide to help attendees decipher his extremely strong, distinctive Boston accent.  Fortunately for our customers, phrases like “Pahk the cah in Hah-vahd yahd,” rarely come up during lighting sales calls!

Alan’s lighting career spans over four decades, as he’s held sales and sales management positions with a number of lighting companies including Nutone Manufacturing, Sterling Lighting and Lightcraft of California.  With that much time in the industry, Alan has numerous sales “war stories.”  He will certainly never forget, for example, visiting customers in the Midwest and having to drive through a solid three hours of tornadoes to get to his destination!

Alan joined A.L.P. when we purchased his family’s company, Reflek Manufacturing.  He spent 19 years as Reflek’s VP of marketing and sales and has been instrumental in the continued success of this custom line of spun aluminum reflectors.  Alan also heads sales for A.L.P.’s global sourcing solutions program.

He and his wife Nancy live in Scituate, Massachusetts.  They are parents to sons Adam and Jason, and proud grandparents of Miles, Jameson, Evan and Justin.  As Alan and his fellow Bostonians would say, his family is “wicked good!”


, , , , , , , ,
  • Nov 12, 2020

Meet the Team: Steve Dix

During the workweek, Steve Dix may focus on shipping products to our customers, but on summer weekends, he is focused on a different kind of shipping, at the helm of his Ocean Yacht Sport Fishing boat. When not sailing the Chesapeake Bay and North Atlantic, he enjoys traveling the globe with his wife Patty, a retired music professor, and their grown children Brian, Kaitlyn, and Sean. Together, they have visited Africa, England, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and Turks & Cacaos.

When it comes to extensive travel, he may have seen it all. But with more than 25 years of manufacturing experience in a variety of roles with A.L.P., Steve has seen (and done) it all where the lighting industry is concerned, too.

Since joining A.L.P., Steve has held progressively responsible management positions in the areas of warehousing, operations, and logistics. He currently serves as Vice President, Customer Fulfillment, managing the entire order processing experience from customer service and inventory to warehousing and logistics.


, , , , , , , , , , ,
  • Oct 29, 2020

Meet the Team: Tom Barnes

Do you know the difference between a jib and a spinnaker?  Or where to locate Port and Starboard? You can turn to A.L.P.’s sailing expert, Tom Barnes, for the answer to these puzzling questions and more.  When he is not working as Vice President and Business Manager for A.L.P.’s LexaLite® brand, you can find Tom competing in (and often winning) races with the Charlevoix Yacht Club.  In addition to sailing, Tom and his wife, Pam, enjoy all that scenic Northern Michigan offers, from golf to hiking and skiing.  They are the proud parents of two daughters, Lexie and Abbey.

Tom’s other passion?  Plastics!  He studied plastics engineering at Ferris State University before joining LexaLite, the company founded by his father, Josh Barnes.  Over the years, he held positions in sales, management, operations, and strategic development before joining A.L.P. when LexaLite was acquired in 2007.

In his current role with A.L.P., he is responsible for defining and promoting the plastic optical product line, ensuring profitability by managing product development, production, pricing, and related functions.


, , , , , , , , , , ,
  • May 6, 2020

Here are some of the products we WOULD have shown at Lightfair!

With the unfortunate cancellation of Lightfair 2020, we will all miss the opportunities for in-person meetings that were scheduled for the show in Vegas this week.  But missing Lightfair doesn’t mean you are missing A.L.P.’s newest technology updates.  Take a peek at what we had in store for LFI 2020:


, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
  • Apr 29, 2020

Little Lindy®, A Better Post Top at a Great Price

Dingy yellow with no optical control.

Crystal clear with optical control and an elegant, updated look.


Value Pricing.  A.L.P. LexaLite® has leveraged manufacturing and sourcing efficiencies to drive costs out of our production process—and we are passing along the savings to you!  Slash costs even more by purchasing our one-piece version that does not require buying clamp bands, costly on-site assembly, or expensive ongoing maintenance.

Better Aesthetic. We have kept the traditional, turn-of-the-century look for a scenic post-top ambiance, as well as the cutting-edge photometric performance.   The Little Lindy® is available with a distinctive, optical design and is offered in UV stabilized acrylic.  It resists ugly yellowing and has a longer service life than blow-molded alternatives*.

Superior Performance. Today’s Little Lindy features the same unsurpassed optical design.  It is offered in Type III and Type V distributions.

*Consult A.L.P.  LexaLite® for UV tolerance, recommended operating temperatures, and service life of Clear Polycarbonate material.

Read more about Little Lindy’s performance, aesthetics, and pricing.


, , , , , , , , , , , ,