Lancaster University

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ERDF Project benefits Hilclare Ltd

06/04/2003 12:25:34

Lancaster University's ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) projects and have already helped hundreds of companies all over Lancashire, Cumbria and Manchester.

One of the latest companies to benefit is Hilclare Ltd, a Manchester based firm that manufactures and installs commercial lighting. The company employs 45 employees and has a turnover of £6million. Most of the company's clients are commercial companies, and they also do a lot of work through intermediaries such as designers and architects.

Hilclare Ltd contacted the University's Business and Enterprise Centre to develop their services.

Although the company already had a CD which showed demonstrations of their internal lighting which they used very effectively as a promotional tool. they had nothing to simulate external illuminations. The company needed a new CD that would simulate external illuminations using their lighting products.

As part of the Cumbria and Lancashire Knowledge Economy Initiative, (the ICT support project for SMEs), the pioneering ideas of Professor Mike Hampshire, who devised the theory on how to model external light simulation, were developed by a university employee and translated into a new external lighting simulation program on CD. The whole process was completed within just 3 months.

The new program will allow the company to market a USP (Unique Selling Point) to their existing and potential customers.

For further information about how your company can benefit from Lancaster University's Business Support Projects, please call Amanda Ross on 01524 593230 or see our website

www.bec.lancs.ac.uk