LSI Industries Enters Into Strategic Partnership With Carter Thermal Industries Group, Expands Refrigeration Solutions Offering

Key Terms

remote refrigeration technical

Remote refrigeration is refrigeration equipment or cold-storage services that are located away from a primary site or are monitored and controlled from a distance using sensors and networked controls. Investors care because it affects the cost, reliability and scalability of transporting or storing temperature-sensitive goods—like medicines or food—much like being able to check and adjust a home thermostat from your phone improves convenience and prevents expensive spoilage or downtime.

self-contained refrigeration systems technical

Self-contained refrigeration systems are complete cooling units that house their own compressor, condenser, evaporator and controls inside a single package, rather than relying on a building-wide or centralized plant. Like a standalone refrigerator versus a whole-house HVAC system, they can be installed, moved or scaled more easily and carry different cost, energy and maintenance profiles—factors investors watch for capital spending, operating margins and regulatory or retrofit risks.

licensing agreement financial

A licensing agreement is a contract where one party gives another the right to use a product, technology, brand, patent or other protected asset in exchange for fees or royalties. For investors, it matters because such deals can provide steady revenue without the licensor bearing all the costs of production or distribution, change a company’s growth prospects, and alter risk depending on whether the rights are exclusive or limited — like renting out a tool instead of selling it outright.

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CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- 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.”

ABOUT LSI INDUSTRIES

Headquartered in Cincinnati, LSI is a publicly held company traded over the NASDAQ Stock Exchange under the symbol LYTS. The company manufactures advanced lighting, graphics, and display solutions across strategic vertical markets. The company’s American-made products, which include non-residential indoor and outdoor lighting, print graphics, digital graphics, refrigerated and custom displays, help create value for customer brands and enhance the consumer experience. LSI also provides comprehensive project management services in support of large-scale product rollouts. The company employs approximately 3,000 people at 23 manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Canada. Additional information about LSI is available at www.lsicorp.com.

ABOUT CARTER THERMAL INDUSTRIES

Founded in 1945, Carter Thermal Industries is a UK-based engineering group specializing in refrigerated retail solutions, refrigeration systems and associated engineering services. The business supports customers across retail, commercial and industrial sectors and continues to invest in innovation, energy efficiency and sustainable refrigeration technologies.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Cautionary Notice: In addition to statements of historical fact, this news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws and is intended to receive the protections of such laws.

All statements, other than historical facts, included or incorporated in this release could be deemed forward-looking statements, particularly statements that reflect our expectations or beliefs of LSI Industries Inc. (the “Company,” “LSI,” “we,” or “us”) concerning future events or our future financial performance. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which are often characterized by discussions of strategy, plans, or intentions or by the use of words such as “may,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “will,” “expect,” “estimate,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “intend,” “plan,” “forecast,” “project,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” or “intend,” the negative or other variants of such terms, or other comparable terminology.

The Company cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to: the impact of competitive products and services; product and pricing demands and market acceptance risks; LSI’s reliance on third-party manufacturers and suppliers; substantial changes to the refueling and convenience store and grocery markets; LSI’s stock price volatility and market volatility in the debt and equity markets; potential costs associated with litigation, other proceedings and regulatory compliance; LSI’s ability to adequately protect intellectual property, information technology security threats and computer crime; financial difficulties experienced by customers; the cyclical and seasonal nature of our business; the failure of acquisitions or acquired companies to achieve their plans or objectives generally; our ability to consummate, successfully integrate, and achieve strategic and other objectives, including any expected synergies, relating to pending or recently completed acquisitions; the inability to effectively execute our business strategies; the ability to retain key employees, including key employees of acquired businesses; labor shortages or an increase in labor costs; changes in product mix; unfavorable economic, political, and market conditions, including interest rate fluctuations and inflation; changes in U.S. trade policy, including mitigating the impacts of increased costs related to tariffs; the results of asset impairment assessments; price increases of materials; significant shortages of materials; shortages in transportation and increases in fuel prices; sudden or unexpected changes in customer creditworthiness; write-offs or impairment of capitalized costs or intangible assets in the future; and the other risk factors LSI describes from time to time in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K (the “Form 10-K”) and in other reports filed with or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") by the Company. You should carefully consider the trends, risks, and uncertainties described in this news release, the Form 10-K, and other reports filed with or furnished to the SEC by the Company before making any investment decision with respect to our securities. If any of these trends, risks, or uncertainties continues or occurs, our business, financial condition, or operating results could be materially and adversely affected, the trading prices of our securities could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.

Forward-looking statements are made in the context of information available as of the date of this news release and are based on our current expectations, forecasts, estimates, and assumptions. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise such statements to reflect circumstances or events occurring after this news release except as may be required by applicable law. All forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260527168934/en/

INVESTOR CONTACT
Noel Ryan or Fred Buonocore
720.778.2415
LYTS@vallumadvisors.com

MEDIA CONTACT
Mike Burcham
Marketing & Communications Manager
513-372-3143
mike.burcham@lsicorp.com

Source: LSI Industries Inc.