IAVNA based in Wickford has been a member of the chamber for many years and recently celebrated over 40 years in business. Now in its second generation this family led firm has been providing lighting for airfields and is at the forefront of the latest technology advancements.
This has seen the company expand its traditional halogen products into the very latest LED technology. LED’s have been part of everyday life for consumers for the last 15 years but have now started to be adopted in earnest by major airports due to the significant advantages they offer.
They bring many advantages including lower energy consumption and consistent light output. IAVNA is part of a group of companies called AGL Advancement and this has blossomed into three distinct brands that have all grown to service different aspects of the market.
IAVNA was the founding company and incorporated by Roy Spicer in July 1979. Primarily it stocked and supplied spare parts, cable and complete light fittings for all the major brands from its base in Wickford. With over £3 million of stock the company is famously “Big enough to cope and small enough to care”. Its stock holding is so well known when a certain president visited the UK recently, Newquay Airport needed a fast upgrade and extension of its main runway, ALS supplied the lights in weeks to the contractors who completed the works to allow Airforce One to land.
ALS (Airfield Lighting Systems) was set up in 2008 and started to manufacture airfield signs and constant current regulators to control the lighting on the airfield. It expanded further in 2015 and launched its own range of LED lighting fittings which have been received incredibly well by the market. They have competed projects in the Middle East and South Africa, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Europe.
In 2018 the group acquired Parkinson Richmark which was founded over 40 years ago and manufactures safety products for the outer airfield areas. Its most famous product is the Linlaner and there are over 3000 of these at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam for instance.
Since COVID the company has heavily invested this year in new warehouse racking and is installing a state-of-the-art ERP system.
Additionally they have been very active participating in exhibitions to build on the export market. This involved a series of exhibitions starting in Munich last November, Dubai in May and more latterly London in June this year.
“We really see the market opening up to new technology” says Managing Director Keith Spicer. “It can save so much time on maintenance the airports are keen to look at products that provide better performance, last longer and are less expensive to run” he adds.