History

A timeline of the history of Ansell Lighting

1992 - 2001

From humble beginnings

In 1992 the brand, Ansell Lighting, was born. The first trading month of Ansell Lighting – August 1992 – recorded £70 in sales and the first product to be sold under the Ansell name was a humble A70MHL, a 70W HQI floodlight.

The business went from strength to strength and the first catalogue was produced in 1994. The early catalogues featured approximately 150 products, a figure which is dwarfed by today’s offering of 3,300 innovative product lines. The business was soon one of the leading brands in Northern Ireland. By 2000 Ansell had a 10,000 sq ft distribution centre in Belfast, with a trade counter, and stocked a huge range of high-quality luminaires and accessories.

With the Northern Ireland business established, the operation needed to expand into a larger market and was ready to trade with wholesalers across the rest of the UK, and in 2001 set up new headquarters in Warrington.

2001 - 2009

Rapid growth and new market in China

Success soon followed and with rapid sales growth and expedited product design, led to the formation of a new subsidiary, Ansell Lighting China. Design, engineering and quality control teams are located within their test facility and work closely with our UK based product development colleagues, overseeing on-going research, design and rigorous testing to support our extensive manufacturing programme.

2006 - 2010

Establishing our lighting design team

In 2006 Ansell Lighting established its own lighting design function and over the years this team has built up an extensive portfolio of lighting design projects around the globe.

As domestic success continued, Ansell turned its attention to export, making its first international sale in Malta. Today, as a global company, Ansell Lighting sells high quality products using local distributors across Europe and the rest of the world. International sales now account for a growing proportion of the company’s overall sales.

2011 - 2019

Runaway success

By 2014, the runaway success had attracted the attention of Endo Lighting Corporation, the Tokyo Stock Exchange listed company, resulting in the acquisition of Ansell Lighting.

The combination of Endo’s reputation and extensive LED expertise continues to support Ansell’s continued growth.

2018

OCTO: Our own smart lighting

In 2018, we launched our own connected lighting solution, OCTO. This platform allows installers to choose from numerous smart lighting fixtures which are effortless to install and even easier to operate. Octo has been central to the our company’s success, with sales of smart lighting solutions forming a growing percentage of the turnover.

2020

Achieving Laboratory Certification 003

In 2020, our own test facility achieved Lighting Industry Association Laboratory Certification 003 for its luminaire testing – one of just six in the UK to achieve the accreditation – allowing it to validate the quality, reliability and performance of new and existing products in-house.

Already a leader in the UK, we have ambitions to continue to grow our operations overseas. To date Ansell exports to 26 different countries from our premises in UK, Belfast, Madrid and Donguan, China.

2022

ISO14001 & ISO9001 Accreditation

Delivering quality products and the very best in customer service is vitally important to us. So in 2022 we were delighted to have added to our accreditations by achieving ISO14001 for our Environmental Management System. This is in addition to the ISO9001 accreditation we already hold for our Quality Management Sytems.

2023

King’s Award For Enterprise

Ansell Lighting was honoured with the first ever King’s Award for Enterprise for Innovation in May 2023. As one of 148 organisations nationally to receive with a prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise and has been recognised for its excellence in the Innovation category for its patented Panel Pod product.

The Panel Pod was created in response to an identified industry need, and converts an LED panel light into an emergency light in less than sixty seconds, without needing a conversion kit or additional ceiling fixture to install.

“The team knew exactly what an electrical wholesaler needed, delivering a comprehensive product range and an easy-to-use catalogue with clear pricing.”

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