Based in London’s Pinewood Studios, Appleworld is a rapidly-growing business, and the developer of the Rotolight brand which provides the photographic and cinematic industries with LED lighting systems. These have been utilised by productions such as James Bond Skyfall, Captain Phillips and Disney’s Maleficent.
Rotolight is distributed to over 40 countries with 70 per cent of sales in exports, though its manufacture base remains in the UK. With the aim of being a major player in the LED market, Appleworld went to the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) for support, and received funding for a number of projects, with more planned for the coming year.
Managing director Rod Aaron Gammons (pictured), feels that MAS’s financial support has been critical to the company’s growth plans to develop two new products, and the finance and specialist advice provided allowed them to fund manufacturing tooling costs, industrial design costs and invest in software redesign for their existing product range. MAS was also able to introduce Appleworld to other suppliers and specialists for support.
As a result, two new products will be launched internationally this year and Appleworld predict that it will double its turnover year on year.
Gammons said: “For a family-owned SME with 12 staff, we can punch above our weight in this highly competitive market and it is vital that we source locally to maintain our quality advantage. MAS’s funding and support have been critical to our ongoing success. We are confident that with our new products and further investment we will achieve 100 per cent revenue growth year on year. We also hope to employ two more staff in the coming year. Production overseas can be attractive on the face of it but we actively worked to retain manufacturing and jobs in the UK and MAS support has enabled us to maintain our investment here.”
