Body

Quicklight takes the hassle out of lighting maintenance and electrical testing for Howdens

Through its network of over 620 depots, Howdens Joinery supplies trade professionals with over 365,000 inspirational kitchens each year. To standardise its processes and maintain good light levels at all its depots, Quicklight provides Howdens with a nationwide lighting maintenance service.

“It’s important for trade retailers like us to maintain suitable levels of light so that our kitchens are shown at their best and customers get a good overall impression of our depots when they visit,” explains Steve Bell, Group Property Manager and Head of Maintenance.

Quicklight engineers visit Howdens’ depots every eight weeks to see if any lamps need replacing. Working from a fixed price list, each depot pays the same price for any parts that are replaced and is responsible for setting its own budget.

Before Quicklight took over Howden’s lighting maintenance services, each manager would be responsible for checking the state of the lighting in their depot and calling out the service provider. Now that Quicklight checks the lighting regularly as part of the complete service, the depot managers can spend more time running the branch.

“Our depot managers benefit from the streamlined, proactive service that Quicklight provides and, since we’ve been working with them, the feedback has been very positive,” continues Steve.

Like many of Quicklight’s lighting maintenance customers, Howdens also recognised that it could benefit from the same high standard of service that Quicklight provides in its electrical testing services. Using a supplier with national coverage and only dealing with a single point of contact helps Howdens simplify the process of fixed-wire testing.  

“Having worked with Quicklight for seven years and received good service, we decided to extend the relationship to include electrical compliance and emergency light testing,” continues Steve. “Quicklight now provides all our depots with electrical installation condition reports (EICR) and tests the emergency lighting at approximately half of them.”

New LED installation for Lytham St Annes

As a trusted supplier, Howdens asked Quicklight to help it source and install new lighting for a showroom in Lytham St. Annes. Accredited with the Carbon Trust Standard, Howdens is committed to reducing energy across its business and asked Quicklight to source a low energy solution. A low ceiling restricted which products could be used, but Quicklight managed to source slim-line, low profile LED panels suitable for the job. 

Fitting LED panels in this case helped Howdens achieve a 66% reduction in the energy required to light the new showroom. It took a team of three Quicklight engineers just over a day to complete the installation.