Celebrating Half a Century

PE puts the questions to Ian Hamilton, MD of Hamilton Litestat, who discusses the company through the ages as it marks 50 years in business.

This month Hamilton celebrates 50 years in business. Founded in 1968 by the late Rod Hamilton, the Hamilton family has grown the company into the respected wiring accessories and electrical product manufacturer that we know today.

In 2018, as it celebrates this marker of endurance and accomplishment, Hamilton is under the successful steer of Rod’s son, Ian.

Here we put the questions to Ian about how the company has developed over the decades and how it aims to maintain its momentum into the next 50 years.

Hamilton has a great name in the electrical and lighting industry, but how did it all begin?

In Teddington, London, back in the late 1960s, my father Rod Hamilton sold one of the first wall plate dimmers. Back then, the company was all about dimming. My father could see a space in the market and sought to provide for the demand. Over the years, the company moved into more advanced lighting control and home automation technology.

And, while building the company’s reputation for high-quality electrical wiring accessories, we’ve evolved our smart control proposition to create an innovative and highly-competitive range of lighting control and multi-room audio control systems that fulfil the demands of today’s tech-savvy customer.

This development has come about by working alongside our customers and developing bespoke solutions, giving us the experience and knowledge to develop totally integrated solutions for lighting and audio. I’m proud to say that through all the industry changes and economic pressures, we have remained a family-run UK business with a loyal team of talented people.

From the dimmer in 1968, how would you describe Hamilton’s product proposition today?

For Hamilton, quality of both design and manufacture is the core of the business. It’s this quality that’s driven our product development programme over the past 50 years and has kept our customers loyal. From our early dimming days, we’ve expanded into a complete turnkey, one-stop-shop for all domestic wiring needs.

Today, our products include circuit protection, electrical wiring accessories, LED dimming solutions, smart lighting control, multi-room audio control, as well outdoor lighting and power. This allows our customers to purchase all their electrical wiring products from a single source, which offers clear business benefits as all our products are designed to work seamlessly together, so there is no fear of costly incompatibility issues.

You expanded the product portfolio with the introduction of a circuit protection range. Why did you choose to enter an already mature sector?

Much like my father did in the early days, we recognised a gap in the market. Contractors wanted a better looking, aesthetically pleasing consumer unit that they didn’t have to hide. Fitting them under cupboards and the stairs isn’t always practical and getting close to the issues facing both installers and end users under the changing requirements of BS7671 Amendment 3 meant we could develop new products to comply with the updated regulations and customer need.

It was a fantastic opportunity for us to enter this sector and add to our product offering. As a newcomer to the market we needed to ensure we had an innovative product that stood out from the traditional players. Our good-looking range with its sleek curved design certainly stands out from an aesthetic point of view, and we took the issue of safety to a new level by becoming the first manufacturer to incorporate intumescent gland adaptors that expand when exposed to heat, acting as a fail-safe for enclosure containment.

What about the future? What’s to come in the next 50 years?

In preparation for the next 50 years, Hamilton has undergone an expansion and restructure. We’ve developed our Bristol site into a turnkey production, sales and distribution centre and grown our sales team to deliver an even higher level of customer service.

The new Customer Contact Centre now handles all enquiries, while we also have our new Centre of Excellence, which incorporates our engineering, design and manufacturing services. This – along with expanding our technical design team – is helping us to develop new products that not only look good but also deliver the latest technology demanded of today’s smart devices in a 24/7 connected society. We’re also growing our customised product capabilities and bespoke solutions to provide more flexibility for our customers.

What about business growth beyond the UK?

We have an enviable reputation for quality in the UK and this is extending internationally to the Middle East, Hong Kong, parts of Africa, Cyprus, Malta and Gibraltar, where the Hamilton name is becoming well-known for encapsulating quality, style and everything that’s British. Our goal is to continue to be known as a brand that professional installers can call upon for quality turnkey electrical wiring solutions, wherever they are in the world.

How will you continue to support your customers?

Our customers have always been at the heart of everything we do. Without them we wouldn’t have made it to 50 years, let alone be preparing for the next 50. We aim to continue to evolve, to expand our products and stay ahead of the curve with technology and solutions. We will always put our customer support and education programmes first.

We’re investing in training for both the current and future generations of installers, running free smart control courses for installers, while also providing smart control training equipment to those working towards their qualifications in colleges to ensure the health of our customer base for the next 50 years.

Additionally, we continue to support our wholesale customers and in 2019 we will add two new Mobile Demonstration Vehicles (MDVs) to our fleet. We’ve been running Contractor Days for some time with our existing MDV, but the new additions will mean we can better respond to the increasing requests to attend Contractor Days, both in the north and south of the country.

So, 50 years old… where’s the party?!

It’s always a party at Hamilton! But in all seriousness, we decided that there’s no better way to celebrate the success of 50 years than by giving back to the local community. We therefore decided to hold a charity bike ride in September whose gruelling 110-mile route began at Hamilton’s original home in Teddington and headed west to its current headquarters in Brislington, where the company has been manufacturing for some years. As well as representing the journey the company has taken, we also raised funds for the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.

We’ll also have a surprise celebration with our employees and with our key customers that have helped us so much over the past 50 years, but I can’t go into too much detail or I’d spoil the surprise!