CITY LIGHTING FIRM SEES ILLUMINATING ONLINE SALES GROWTH

A Plymouth lighting supplier is eyeing rapid growth due to a paradigm shift in selling online – but wants to be better known in its home city.

Efficient Lighting is on “an upward trajectory” due to the increasing trend of construction developers to buy products online.

It is considering moving into bigger premises, and that includes a larger showroom to give it a more visible face in Plymouth.

“We’re better known in Shetland than Plymouth,” said managing director Giles Boardman. “So we want to build our Plymouth profile.

“We are a Plymouth company and have grown in Plymouth, but we want to be better known and help Plymouth people.”

Mr Boardman had been working as an energy consultant but decided to start his own business because: “Everyone asked me about lighting.”

He set up the company from his coffee table in 2004. It moved to Sisna Park in 2009 as an online lighting supplier, specialising in LEDs, but with a showroom for city trade.

The firm employs eight staff at its 2,000sq ft base at Sisna Park, but has expansion on its radar, eyeing up a 10,000sq ft unit.

That would mean increasing the size of the showroom from 75sq m to 300sq m.

Three of its staff are new, and another couple could be joining too.

“We’re growing very fast. It’s mainly due to new distribution channels. We are on an upward trajectory,” Mr Boardman said.

He said 70 per cent of the trade is now online and the firm launched a new website in 2015 and is looking at other online portals through which to sell , such as Ebay and Amazon.

“The growth online is unstoppable, the business world is changing,” he explained.

He said being online means Efficient Lighting has become involved in “highly prestigious”, even international, projects, such as providing 1,700 lighting systems for Belvoir Castle in Leicester.

But having a Plymouth showroom gives the firm a visible presence, and a help point for customers.

The firm offers lighting products from five UK manufacturers and 15 international companies, spread through Europe and the Far East.

“We started as domestic, retail based, but have become more commercial now, about 80 per cent commercial,” Mr Boardman said.

“But we have a showroom for local retail, people building their own homes, new builds, extensions and refurbs.

“We also do a lot of design work for prestigious new-builds and refurbs.”

The firm receives up to 50 orders a day, it has 18,500 products on its website.

Competitors are firms such as John Hall Lighting and Amos Lighting, and “for one light” B&Q.