Farewell old Strand, hello Genlyte-Strand?

[paulears]

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.

[Guy]

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 pay

Guy

[Liam FitzG]

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

[GridGirl]

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.

[Brian]

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) and

100% of Strand Overseas Holding Limited which held the investments in...

 

Strand Lighting Italy

Strand Lighting Germany

Strand Lighting Inc, USA

Strand Lighting Asia, Hong Kong

Strand Lighting (Canada) Inc

 

 

Turnover was suprisingly small (and profit even smaller).

[homersignalman]

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.

[gareth]

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.

[Kazeja]

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.

[Andrew C]

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...

[homersignalman]

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.

[3guk]

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.

[Liam FitzG]

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

[Albatross]

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)

[Pete]

Genlyte pages are still down for me.

 

Im assuming Genlyte controls are part of the same group?

[maeterlinck]

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!