About Us

The Lightforce Group Story

The extraordinary story of Lightforce began over 35 years ago with our founder Dr. Raymond (Ray) Dennis in the country town of Cleve in South Australia.

After searching the retail market for a high quality and robust spotlight to use on his property and finding nothing suitable, Ray decided to build one himself…and the rest, as they say, is history.

Being a man of vision and foresight, Ray recognised the potential demand for the lightweight, portable and handheld spotlight which lay before him. Enter Lightforce. It was a system powerful enough to use for professional purposes yet priced within the grasp of the enthusiast and sportsman. Ray soon produced his first commercially manufactured lighting system. Based on original designs, his lighting systems found such favour among professionals and sporting enthusiasts alike that production was increased and improvements incorporated. This brought greater diversity to the range, ensuring the growing success and popularity of the brand.

Lightforce is now based in Adelaide, South Australia and employs over 65 trained staff. Our fabrication plant has grown into a sophisticated manufacturing facility.

Lightforce has built a formidable reputation as a global leader in innovative design and excellence in the manufacture of high performance and durable lighting systems. Ongoing development has opened up new markets and our award-winning range of modular accessories has helped increase demand to the point where we now export to over 50 countries worldwide.

With more than 35 years’ experience, Lightforce Group is now a global leader in portable professional lighting systems as well as driving lights, rifle-scope optics and lighting accessories.

Unlike our competitors, we undertake pioneering work in the use of modern composite and eco-friendly materials. This not only gives us a clear competitive advantage but has also earned Lightforce a number of prestigious Australian and international design awards. We continue to see growth in customer loyalty and confidence in our brand around the world.

Built around the framework of ISO 9001:2015 (International Quality Standards), our manufacturing capability and capacity is agile to ensure we meet the ever-changing market demands. Our design ethos is simply that “quality is designed in, not inspected in”. With a dedicated and highly accurate logistics network, more than half of Lightforce’s production is exported worldwide to major markets in Europe, Scandinavia, Africa, South East Asia and North America.

Tried and tested, Lightforce delivers products that have been designed, developed and manufactured to operate in environmental extremes – from the harsh Australian Outback and Sahara Desert to the freezing Alaskan Tundra and beyond.

Lightforce Group Timeline

1980

The beginning

Dr. Ray Dennis is practising in Cleve, South Australia as a dentist. Searching and failing to find a suitable light to use on his property, he decides to build his own.

1985

Gun Shop

Ray opens a gun shop in the same building as the dental practice in Cleve, South Australia. This would go on to form the launching pad for the future of the Lightforce Group.

1986

Manufacturing began

RL Dennis manufacturing is established and renamed Lightforce Australia. Concentrating on the sporting light market and building a brand that would soon go global.

1992

Nightforce

The company moves into the US market with the establishment of Lightforce USA, which trades under the name Nightforce Optics (the Lightforce name is unavailable). Due to restrictions on using lights for hunting at night, the focus is solely on optics products.

1994

Branding

The Lightforce name becomes available in the US and is acquired to be used only for lighting products (with the Nightforce brand remaining dedicated to optics).

1996

Driving forward

Lightforce begins production of driving lights, developing brackets to mount hunting lights on vehicles. This is where the brand’s recognition is cemented in Australia – being seen on the front of many vehicles on the road.

2006

APRS

APRS established in order to create a high quality platform to deliver premium performance through a retail rifle and maintenance service. Using some of the finest components machined to exact tolerances to produce a true precision rifle.

2010

Paroo Pastoral

Paroo Pastoral Company is acquired, with pastoral properties across South Australia and New South Wales

2016

HORUS

Lightforce Group expands further with the acquisition of US reticle design company Horus Vision whose reticle designs were already a part of the Nightforce product range; creating a fully in-house network of product.

2017

Force Ordnance

Establishment of Force Ordnance, drawing together the Lightforce Group with a global consortium of key partners to supply to defence and law enforcement clientele.

2018

GunForce

GunForce opens its Adelaide showroom and online sales channels as the Australian relaunch into the retail market. The store sells a range of firearms and accessories as well as all Lightforce Group products.