Lighting design division enters 2018 with £1 million order book

A specialist services division of Gateshead-based Park Electrical Distributors, enters 2018 with great confidence having secured an order book worth over £1 million in the weeks leading up to Christmas for projects based across the North East

Projects won by the lighting design division include student residencies; Neville’s Cross Durham, Union Street and Park View Newcastle and the Unite branded student accommodation on North Road Durham. On the manufacturing front, two new-build factory facilities, P2 Pipelines Cramlington and Akzo Nobel Gateshead. The division has also secured the first commercial office building on the Vaux Site at Sunderland and the new purpose-built Newcastle Eagles Stadium, Riverside Dene Community Stadium.

In addition to these new contracts, the division has completed a raft of projects including the iconic Spanish City complex in Whitley Bay, which has been redeveloped as part of the regeneration of the seafront in North Tyneside.

Established in 1990 and recognised as the largest independent electrical wholesaler in the North East, Park has four specialist divisions, lighting design, energy services, building technologies and industrial services. With a £20 million turnover, the company has its headquarters on the Team Valley Industrial Estate, Gateshead and has further branches in Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Sunderland and Durham.

Karl Snowdon, lighting design manager, said: “While margins remain tight and we operate in a very competitive market, we are consistently winning big contracts thanks to the very strong relationships we have built with both the end customer and companies operating in the supply chain.

“Our exciting start to 2018 is also good news for the regional economy, as it reflects strong investment by customers in their existing operations, including a raft of new infrastructure projects that are taking place across the region.

“We are a highly ambitious business and while the North East is our main heartland, we see great opportunities for future growth in other areas of the country and the potential to establish a base elsewhere, is something that we are currently exploring. To support this growth further, the company has recently appointed Graham McMullen as national sales manager, building technologies, to promote the specialist services divisions in other areas of the UK.”

“Trying to stay ahead of the pack is especially difficult as predominately most projects are down to cost. With this in mind, we have spent more time and resource on training our staff in new, innovative approaches and products. We have also developed our knowledge in building technologies such as the advanced KNX protocol to add further value to our schemes.

“We have employed another lighting engineer to grow the department and stretch our resources to other areas. Both lighting design and building technologies will be attending the world’s leading trade fair for lighting and building services, Light + Build Frankfurt in March, to further our knowledge in the industry and incorporate more intelligent solutions to our designs. We would welcome the opportunity to meet up with any new or existing customers where we could facilitate a personalised tour of our partnered supplier stands.”

The Park lighting design division specialises in bespoke solutions based on LED Lighting, which offer many advantages over conventional lamps. For example, LED provides a life of up to 80,000 hours compared to 20,000 for conventional lamps. Unlike fluorescent lights, LEDs do not contain mercury so don’t require special cycling or disposal procedures. This is reflected in a reduced WEEE charge for LED lights. Older technologies such as HP sodium cannot be dimmed or switched quickly and fluorescent has a warm-up time requirement. LED can be switched and dimmed very easily and the lights only need be on when required. Typical savings of 70% can be achieved here.