THE CANADIAN luminaire maker Lumenpulse Group is selling the assets of its troubled Manchester-based subsidiary AlphaLED to the original founder of the company.
The deal – which sees Gary Heald continue the operation under its original name, Projection Lighting – secures the future of the factory in Trafford Park.
Lumenpulse had announced in October that it would close the plant on 31 December due to ‘economic uncertainty’.
The company was founded as a downlight specialist by Heald in 1991 and bought by Lumenpulse for £16.6 million in June 2014.
Heald says he wants to put the emphasis back on product and light quality. A ’unique’ 10-year warranty will be offered, and products will have a best-in-class colour point stability of just two MacAdam ellipses.
The heart of the luminaires will be built on Xicato light engines, and the company will expand into linear luminaires.
‘The market has matured,’ said Heald. ‘You don’t have to make the argument light quality as we had to in the early days.
‘The same with energy efficiency. I remember receiving an award from the Lighting Association for a downlight which delivered 40 luminaire lumens per watt, which was unique at the time. Now that we’re over 100 lumens per watt nobody’s talking about it.’
Heald takes over as managing director, and members of his family, who continued in the business during the Lumenpulse tenure, form part of the new management team.
His two sons, Oliver and Alexander, are production manager and sales organiser respectively, while nephew Gary is operations manager.
The sale will have no impact on the European operations of the Lumenpulse group Inc and Lumenpulse UK limited.
The Lumenpulse product portfolio, including the architectural specification grade Lumencore downlights, will remain available for the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well the Asia Pacific regional markets through Lumenpulse’s distributing partners.
- Commercial enquiries to Projection Lighting should be directed to sales@alphaled.co.uk 0161 873 7841
- Commercial enquiries to Lumenpulse should be directed to team-insidesales@lumenpulse.com in the first instance
