Vision Alert lights the way

A YORKSHIRE safety equipment manufacturer has increased its turnover to £20m and created 45 new jobs in the last 12 months after growing its customer base across the world.

Vision Alert exports its beacons and light bars, which are used in the automotive industry by organisations including the AA, to more than 50 countries and customers, including police forces in the Middle East.

The company, based in Seacroft, Leeds, was launched by two former managers from Bridlington-based Britax in 1994.

Current managing director Chris Marshall joined Vision Alert from German firm Hella Lighting, as sales and marketing director in 2002 when turnover was £3m. Two years later both founders moved on and Mr Marshall moved into the top job.

Continued success led to the Seacroft site becoming the European headquarters of the American group ECCO, with bases also in Idaho and Tasmania.

A year ago, ECCO was bought by the $7bn Philadelphia-based Berwind Group providing Vision Alert with acquisition capital to add to the firm’s growth strategy.

This led to the Leeds company’s £6m takeover of Hemel Hempstead-based Delta Design. Merging of the two firms’ production facilities in Seacroft was achieved in just six months, creating jobs for 35 new employees, many of them recruited from the local area.

Mr Marshall said: “Integrating the two businesses so quickly was a massive achievement by our management team and workforce, many of whom had to speedily learn new skills and processes from scratch.”

Vision Alert has grown swiftly to global prominence in the market for auto-related safety and warning devices, with half the 143-strong workforce’s output now selling abroad to countries including China, Hong Kong and Australia.

Vision Alert offers more than 500 different beacons and 5,000 lightbars, including a sizeable number of own-label versions.