Luxonic has completed a ten-month, £750,000 programme to expand its production facilities in Basingstoke.
The company has built two mezzanine assembly areas into its existing Basingstoke site, increasing the production area by 30 per cent.
At the opening of the expanded facility, Luxonic production manager Alan Ayres described how the company had worked with manufacturing consultants to introduce lean manufacturing processes. 40 members of staff had been awarded NVQs in the production methodology, the principle of which is to create manufacturing cells for each product range where a team is responsible for every aspect of production.
Ayers said: "The changes we have put in place will give us a massive efficiency gain and more capacity to manufacture both LED and fluorescent luminaires."
Speaking at the event, Luxonic's managing director Nick Tavare described how the company had re-designed its entire product range around LEDs over the course of the last two years. "80 per cent of our production is now LEDs," he said. "We've got some legacy projects that are using older technology but they are declining rapidly. In 12 months' time my prediction is there will be no metal halide and no fluorescent."
Now in its 28th year, Luxonic employs around 100 people with annual sales of £11 million. In recent years it has been associated with high-profile projects with retailers like Next and more recently Tesco. It is also active in the office and warehouse sectors.
Tavare added: "2013 was a fantastic year for us in terms of sales and we have seen huge increases in demand for LED products. This major investment puts us in an excellent position to satisfy this need for energy efficient LED lighting and grow the business in the future.
