Lighthouse strengthens board following turnaround

Wide-format printer Lighthouse Display has appointed four new directors to its board after returning to profitability five months after it was bought in a pre-pack sale.

The POS packaging specialist, which also has capabilities in cardboard and plastic, notably with its Clipstrip product, was purchased out of administration in April by a consortium of local businesspeople and moved to new premises in Nottingham.

The consortium consisted of Jonathan Prutton, who served as interim managing director, interim production director Simon Woods and interim finance director Tom Mawhood, with Neil Speed, Garry Morpeth and Gary Pearce as non-exec directors.

Prutton, Woods and Mawhood have now relinquished their interim executive roles but will remain on the board as non-executive directors, while the four new directors started in their roles on 17 September.

Annie Tighe has become the new managing director while the rest of the team comprises Helen Myles as sales and marketing director, Joel Lockham as operations director and Jill Goode as finance director.

Tighe, who had worked for Lighthouse Display for almost 10 years, has a well-established knowledge of FMCG, sales, retail, business development and forecasting, while Myles, who had been with the business for over 12 years, has experience in the FMCG business in commercial roles as well as product development, key account management and marketing.

Lockham, who had worked for the company for seven years, will be responsible for production, IT, facilities management, health and safety, quality and training, while Goode, who is new to the business, will be responsible for all elements of financial reporting and control, along with oversight of human resources.

The company said it has stabilised its position in the months since the pre-pack sale and is “in a very healthy position from which to continue on our growth path”.

“We are concentrating on organic growth of our core Clipstrip business as well as looking at new product development in recyclable plastics and cardboard POS solutions,” Prutton told Printweek.

“Our Clipstrip programmes are in most but not all of the leading retail multiples so there is still plenty of opportunity to grow this side of the business.”

Set to turn over up to £5m based on its current run rate, Lighthouse Display now employs around 40 to 50 permanent staff, which according to Prutton is topped up with temporary labour when needed.

He added: “The transition has been remarkably smooth. We are working with all our original customers and suppliers and have employed the bulk of the staff employed by the old company. There have been a handful of redundancies in order to streamline the business to reflect the ongoing level of sales and sales mix.

“We bought the digital printing, press capacity and injection moulding capacity from the old company and complemented this with some further acquisitions of equipment from third parties.”

Last month, Corporate Financial Solutions was appointed as the new liquidator of the original business following a request by creditors, who were understood to be dissatisfied with prior liquidator Quantuma’s investigatory efforts of Stephen Pratt, who had bought the firm in December 2018.