Based in the Bilston area of the West Midlands, the Vink has established itself as one of the successful solutions provider in the sign and display lighting market. With many of its products currently being used for a host of signage installations in the UK, the company has also been able to build up a significant presence in the Netherlands, Belgium Spain and Hungary.

Not content with this level of business, the company, which supplies the industry with major brands such as Agilight and Osram, is keen to capitalise on its experience in the sector and expand its services further.

Speaking to SignLink during a visit to the company’s Bilston facility, business manager David Foreman explained that although certain sectors of the lighting market are struggling at present, Vink is keen to look to the future and establish a service that can not only cope with current conditions, but also satisfy demand in an improved market.

“For our sector, which is predominantly retailers, they are currently having a tough time and spending very little money,” Foreman told SignLink, adding: “We are suffering a little bit of the ‘Tesco effect’ where they pulled their programme and didn’t spend any money, so the other big supermarkets followed that lead and that cascaded across the industry.

“However, the last thing we want to do is remove cost from the business, so it’s about investing. Our new UK sales manager Macer Bridges joined in November from a competitor and we were very fortunate to get him.

“We’ve also strengthened our sales team with the appointment of Adam Dixon, who oversees LED sales in the north of the UK, which means we now have a sales person in both the north and south. And that is the first time in many years that we have had this much investment in sales.

“So, we’re responding to some of the current market difficulties by investing in face-to-face selling so that when our customer base starts to pick up, we are the trusted advisor of choice for them to incorporate into their programmes.”

As one of the latest additions to the Vink team, Bridges is new to the company’s way of operating, but boasts an in-depth knowledge of the market that he will use to help Vink progress with expansion plans of its own.

Speaking more about his time with the firm so far, Bridges said: “It’s a completely culture to the life I had before, but it’s far better company to work for and a much better skill set to work with in the business.

“We knew 2015 was going to be a difficult year with the marketplace being flat. That said, we’re confident with the people we've got on board and the partners that we work with that we’ll be able to meet our challenges.”

Foreman picks up on this point, adding: “The market will not continue to expand and I think in the UK that is now the case. I think we’ll see some consolidation on the supply side. So, as a business, what we want to do is dominate the sector as much as we can and take as much business as we can to ensure we are not one of the casualties in that consolidation.

“We’d like to come through that process offering the same quality of service to sign-makers, but also reasonably substantial as a business and being in much of the same shape.”