paulears Posted July 13, 2006 Share Posted July 13, 2006 I'm stuck - I always was a Strand man at heart, and have a few quotes in the system - heavy on Strand kit - lanterns and controls. I tend to do dual layer quotes, option A - budget concious, option B - using better quality, longer lifespan products - with Strand kit featured heavily. I'm not sure what to do now. Risk them accepting an order, but unable to deliver or guarantee service/parts? or go with somebody else, and either swallow the extra cost, or have to go through the entire process all over again. It is just so annoying that nowadays, businesses 'pretend' to be doing well, and promoting themselves when like synchronised swimming, everything below public view is thrashing around like mad! You have to ask yourself that if US Strand were in negotiations to sell the business, then the fact that the UK didn't know, and weren't included shows how critical the UK market was to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Posted July 13, 2006 Share Posted July 13, 2006 Try http://www.fifenow.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx...ticleID=1625295 for further info. It looks like the same old sad story - sack the workforce in UK as it is cheaper to do so - as the company is in administration, the staff may get only their statutory redundancy payGuy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam FitzG Posted July 13, 2006 Share Posted July 13, 2006 I would have to suggest that it might be worth holding off on orders for a few weeks to see how this pans out. Rather than ordering something which you might regret later. I am sure that the Strand brand will still exist and that the various dealers will support any products that they sell in the same manor that they have in the past. After all the dealer (assuming they are honourable) will not sell you something that you are going to left stuck with. Liam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GridGirl Posted July 13, 2006 Share Posted July 13, 2006 Just had a look at the Strand webpage and there's already stuff up on it - particularly worth noting is this, the loss a UK tech support is going to be a right PITA - I don't know how many times I've phoned them with issues in the last year, but it's quite a few, and they've always been able to solve my problem over the phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted July 13, 2006 Share Posted July 13, 2006 Strand was organised thus:- Strand Lighting Group Limited employed 309 people in 2004 and owned... 100% of Strand Lighting Limited and in 2004 employed 114 people in the UK (included in the above figure) and100% of Strand Overseas Holding Limited which held the investments in... Strand Lighting ItalyStrand Lighting GermanyStrand Lighting Inc, USAStrand Lighting Asia, Hong KongStrand Lighting (Canada) Inc Turnover was suprisingly small (and profit even smaller). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersignalman Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 Several years ago I was lucky enough to be part of a group of Strand lighting desk users, both tv & theatre, to spend two days at a hotel in Windsor thrashing out what we all wanted from a new Galaxy (very dirty saying at Strand)/ 500 series replacement.At the end of the 2 days we were all quite happy with each others ideas and, if Strand had gone on to build something along the lines of what we had agreed I am pretty confident they could have done very well out of it. Instead I think they sacked all but one of the employees that had organized the meeting. Although I like them a lot there has always been a bit of arogance somewhere deep within the company that, I think, has dragged it down.My feelings are now with all the UK staff, I hope they are re-enployed very quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 Seconded re. the Strand UK staff. They have (had? :blink:) some great people working for them, and I really hope they all come through this relatively unscathed and manage to find other opportunities within the lighting industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kazeja Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 Several years ago I was lucky enough to be part of a group of Strand lighting desk users, both tv & theatre, to spend two days at a hotel in Windsor thrashing out what we all wanted from a new Galaxy (very dirty saying at Strand)/ 500 series replacement.At the end of the 2 days we were all quite happy with each others ideas and, if Strand had gone on to build something along the lines of what we had agreed I am pretty confident they could have done very well out of it. Instead I think they sacked all but one of the employees that had organized the meeting. Although I like them a lot there has always been a bit of arogance somewhere deep within the company that, I think, has dragged it down.My feelings are now with all the UK staff, I hope they are re-enployed very quickly.Yes. I also remember the meetings, and one of the results was a "modular console"(?) known as...300. Mixed feelings about this. Very sorry for the staff and the way they were treated according to the press. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 Interesting to see how much ET News rate the story. Ninth item, some way below ALD patting themselves on the back. Great shame even if it is a long time since I have bought any Strand kit. Was thinking about some dimmers for next year, but maybe not... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersignalman Posted July 15, 2006 Share Posted July 15, 2006 My own feeling is that the 300 was a result of them not listening, sacking those that new better and building something out of the Fisher Price catalogue instead, although I understand that it is/was a very popular desk with some people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3guk Posted July 15, 2006 Share Posted July 15, 2006 It's such a shame to hear of this, and worrying for all the strand owners in the UK that there seems to be no longer a UK operation. I'm hoping this means Genlyte will start a UK operation and hence spares should not have to be imported at hugely inflated prices. Anyway, I've emailed a few people within Strand, that I know, to see if I can get anymore info about what this means for the UK Strand Owners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam FitzG Posted July 15, 2006 Share Posted July 15, 2006 SNIP...Anyway, I've emailed a few people within Strand, that I know, to see if I can get anymore info about what this means for the UK Strand Owners. I hope you used personal emails for them, as any UK emails or UK mobiles that I've tried have been shut down. Liam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albatross Posted July 16, 2006 Share Posted July 16, 2006 I was fortunate enough ( or unfortunate?) to be an employee of Strand Australia (after it's split from Rank) from 1987 -1989, in the service department.As it was my first employer in private enterprise, I didn't see all the problems that it had internally. Looking back I can now see how inefficient the organisation was. It was amazing to see some of the products being developed in R&D here in Melbourne (StrandPak Dimmers) and get to play with 'new' toys such as the ParScan ( we had 8 of them :-) ) and the terrible engineering of the US produced Light Scan (an early focusable moving light). Even though I'd moved on I was very sad to hear of Strand Oz going broke in the early 90's, and just as sad now to hear of an international company with so much history & true Historical impacct on the whole industry, going under.I hope that Genlyte does preserve some of the company, and perhaps the history of this legend of the industry. (edit to fix grammar & spelling - Ric) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 Genlyte pages are still down for me. Im assuming Genlyte controls are part of the same group? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maeterlinck Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 It's funny, on one hand I'm sad that a company like Strand has gone under, and that people have lost their jobs. However, in the 'Darwinian' nature of business it was possibly deserved. Strand did well way back because they produced inovative products that no one else really did and were ground breakers. Pattern 23 anyone? However, I don't really think they have produced a lantern pushes the concept of what a lantern can do. To survive it should have been Strand Source4 or Strand Pacific. With control then releasing a console that provides less access to features and runs off the same software isn't a way to enhance your product range, it enhances your model range.I hope that Strand can continue and won't disappear in to theatre lore. However, I really hope that British companies can find some of that ground breaking thinking we used to have as a nation that developed things like the first mass produced theater lantern! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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