When I started my own practice in 1982, one of the first companies we specified was Chelsom. Whilst other big names in the lighting industry have struggled to develop, or even ceased trading, Robert Chelsom and his son Will have led the development of the family business steadily, taking it to its current position as one of the stalwarts of the interior design supply industry that HotelDesigns is proud to represent to the world.
Regular readers of our Industry columns will have seen many articles on hotels supplied by the company as they continue to expand their range and reach. I first visited the company in their offices in Lancashire some dozen years ago, and they continue to work from the now much busier location, but have built a strong custom manufacturing service in Lancashire whilst developing their high quality manufacturing plant in China.
Whilst other companies complain about quality and bring manufacturing back into Britain, Robert is passionate in defending the quality of their Chinese manufacturing plant. The company has invested heavily in building relationship and quality control systems and now their product quality is unmatched (and, says Robert, cannot be matched in the UK) whilst the Chinese plant has enabled the company to extend its supply into the enormously growing S.E. Asia market with minimal transport costs.
The design and prototyping work is carried out and refined in the UK prior to manufacturing, most of it carried out in Lancashire by the father and son team. Robert talked about the criteria for manufacturing for Hospitality in a recent well received article on Hotel Designs (see Designing Hotel Lighting)
