Light-saving company sets shining example as turnover rises to £14m

Leeds-based Harvard Engineering's Leafnut system is helping local councils to cut their bills by providing dimming controls for street lighting.

Leafnut, which can also cut carbon production and toxic waste by up to 50 per cent across street lighting systems, has helped Harvard to increase its market share.

Bradford-born John McDonnell, the company's managing director, said the company's full year turnover was expected to grow from 8.5m to around 14m this year.

He added: "We've grown from about 100 staff at the end of 2009 to just over 150 now. We're still recruiting. We had a board meeting last week and identified another seven people we need to recruit just in the management support areas."

The company has come a long way since Mr McDonnell, an electronics engineer, developed an electronic ballast product in the kitchen of his home in Kingston-on-Thames. Joined by his brother Michael, he returned to Yorkshire in 1993 to launch Harvard.

The Leafnut system is the result of a six-year research and development programme carried out by Harvard at its base in Leeds.

Using Leafnut, street lights can operate at 75 per cent power between 10pm and midnight and 50 per cent power between midnight and 5am.

Mr McDonnell said: "We dim the street lighting sufficiently to save up to 40 per cent of the energy cost, and 40 per cent of the carbon production and carbon emissions, but not so far that people will notice.

"We've done numerous trials and surveys. Our customers have asked residents if they've noticed anything about the lighting, and nobody has ever noticed that they are dimmer at different times.

"We have seen the Leafnut street lighting gather some momentum. We started shipping some large projects that we won last year. All the street lighting in Blackpool has been changed over to this system. Similarly, the 90,000 street lights in Surrey are going to be changed over to Leafnut.

"We're also very active in the LED lighting market. LEDs are becoming more and more popular. We're market leaders in that technology.

"We launched the LED driver products in Frankfurt this year. It's been the fastest growing product we have ever launched. We're making many thousands a month.

"Twenty per cent of our workforce is engaged in research and development and we're growing that department.

"We're always looking to find the next product that will secure business in the next five years. We have been market leaders in several new technology areas over the last 10 years.

"We export about 30 per cent of our turnover. We're actively looking to expand that.

"Everything we make and sell is made in the UK. We looked at manufacturing in China and didn't find it was cost effective for us."

Apart from the risk of poor quality production, moving manufacturing facilities to China would also mean that stock spent a several weeks at sea, Mr McDonnell said.

He added: "The benefits potentially were not there to allay those risks. We couldn't make it any cheaper in China, because we've got a highly efficient, high volume production factory here.

"Our engineering team and development team are very close to the production team. Anything that goes wrong can be dealt with very quickly. We don't have time differences to deal with.

"In 2009, we set our Olympian goal to reach 25m turnover by 2012. We're on target to do that. Further growth beyond that milestone will come from international expansion."

LIGHT WORK: THE HARVARD STORY

Harvard's Leafnut system can provide monitoring, switching and dimming controls for street lights. The lights can be programmed to dim during the early hours of the morning, or run at full power during events such as football matches. It also helps managers to spot failed lamps and predict when lamps will need maintenance.

Harvard competes with big names such as Philips, Osram and the Thorn

Group, and has carved out a niche in commercial lighting, where customers are demanding more compact and energy efficient products.

When asked whether his business would be affected by the planned cuts in public spending, Mr McDonnell said: "It's going to be difficult but we're in a sector of the market that is somewhat immune to economic cycles. We're in an energy saving, carbon reduction business which is top of everybody's agenda. "

In 2009, Harvard Engineering won the Innovation of the Year category at the Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business Awards.