Brought up on the south coast, sailing has always been a passion of mine. In the mid-2000s I made the decision to step down from the helm of my first business, Group GTI, and take some time to enjoy my hobby. It was during this period, when I began re-fitting my boat, that I came across the marine lighting brand, OceanLED.

OceanLED is the most widely-distributed marine lighting brand in the world and provides specialist LEDs for use on all sizes of boats, from three metre RIBs [rigid inflatable boats] to the largest super yachts. I was hugely impressed by its business potential following an introduction to the company, and soon decided to initially invest a small sum of money.

It didn’t take long to become fully immersed in the brand and I was soon busy exploring new avenues for growth and profitability.

It was during this period of time that I began to notice a gap in the market and started investigating how we could apply marine LED technology to the commercial sector. With this in mind, I decided to launch OceanLED’s sister company, Lietcorp, which specialises in offering architectural sectors innovative LED technologies, energy savings, improved lighting quality and lower carbon footprints.

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I strongly believe that lighting is one of only a handful of technologies which, when done well, offers huge benefits to a wide audience including businesses, customers and the environment.

As a British business, we pride ourselves on designing and producing all elements of Lietcorp LEDs at our headquarters in Leicestershire. We currently work with a variety of sectors and a number of well-known brands across the UK including Boots, Bathstore, Hilton Hotels and Mitchells & Butlers. Most recently we have been expanding our roots overseas and have just completed the LED re-fit of the Dubai Festival City Mall, Dubai’s third largest mall.

Taking the plunge and investing in a business I truly believed in has been undoubtedly my most rewarding decision to date. My vision for the company now is to ensure significant growth through the development of creative product innovation and further expansion overseas, primarily in the UAE, South East Asia and Europe.