Anglepoise lamps began life in the 1920s, when a mechanical engineer named George Carwardine developed an idea for an articulated mechanism that could hold an object in any position.
Carwardine’s ‘equipoise’ system remains the fundamental engineering principle behind Anglepoise lamps to this day.
But this flash of engineering brilliance was not enough to sustain the success of the Anglepoise company in the face of growing competition from cheaper and arguably as effective imports.
Constrained to the UK market and under pressure from low-cost, low price operations like IKEA, the company saw its market share shrink and its margins squeezed. Anglepoise’s main channel of distribution has traditionally been through office equipment and supplies catalogues, whose operators can buy well made if less functional task lights from Far East sources at commodity prices.
Anglepoise is run by father and son team, John and Simon Terry. By 2001, the pair realised that if Anglepoise was to survive it was time to make a few harsh decisions. The most straightforward option, and one chosen by many UK manufacturers in recent years, would be to stick to the same products and distribution channels but move all production overseas – probably to China.
But the Terrys could see that this strategy might easily erode one of the company’s key remaining strengths – its reputation for precision design and engineering excellence.
‘Our margins were very small, and shrinking fast,’ explains Managing Director Simon Terry. ‘But we had a strong name, as well as our flawless design and engineering credentials. We wanted to find a way to reinvent the business to capitalise on these assets – not undermine them.’ There had to be another way.
The answer turned out to be a much more radical overhaul of the entire business. Anglepoise would start again, in a new location, as a high design, premium priced brand addressing an international marketplace.
