Volkswagen dealership saves 40% by choosing Dextra Lighting over major competitor.

Dextra Lighting’s scheme for the Bury St. Edmunds VW Van Centre refurbishment project, demonstrated a considerable edge over plans submitted by a leading global lighting supplier. Upon reviewing the proposed designs, the appointed contractors, Barton Electrical of Ipswich, calculated that Dextra could deliver an equivalent LED installation for almost half the overall cost, without compromising on either quality or efficiency. In addition to the substantial savings, the order was completed in just over 2 weeks following the client’s initial enquiry.

Owned by the Marriot Motor Group, one of East Anglia’s leading privately owned companies, the VW Van Centre is strategically located just off the A1101, making it easily accessible from all parts of the region. Over the years, the family run business has built a reputation for providing warm, friendly and highly professional service, and offering not only the highest quality vehicles but also great value.

The project involved providing general, display and emergency lighting for the dealership’s showroom. As a result, all products chosen for the design utilised the latest Philips LEDs, offering long life and low maintenance costs whilst consuming far less energy than HID or fluorescent lighting.

Although energy-efficiency was a top priority, the lighting had to showcase the vehicles on display effectively and create a vibrant and inviting atmosphere for visitors. With these criteria in mind, the Gyro-Light LED was specified for the van showroom. Due to its aesthetically pleasing design, versatility and excellent performance, this recessed gimbal luminaire has enjoyed continued success in the retail sector, and has often featured in high-profile car showrooms nationwide.

“Due to its aesthetically pleasing design, versatility and excellent performance, this recessed gimbal luminaire has enjoyed continued success in the retail sector, and has often featured in high-profile car showrooms nationwide.”

Retail lighting is much about look, feel and reflecting a particular brand identity. Lighting designers need to take in consideration factors such as: the appearance of the fitting itself, the quality and temperature of light it can produce, and the distributions it can create; all to achieve a desired aesthetic. The Gyro-Light offers solutions to all these issues. To begin with, a black powder coated steel housing and high quality die cast aluminium heads give the luminaire not only a modern and attractive appearance but a sturdy construction.

Another key feature of the Gyro-Light is that it can be delivered as an individual spotlight or a cluster of recessed gimbal luminaires depending on the client’s needs. Available in single, twin, triple and quadruple head configurations (in either LED or CDM-T), with each head being capable of pivoting and rotating independently, the luminaire is multifunctional and offers increased flexibility to adjust to changing layouts, decors and functions.

To give designers a wider palette of lighting effects, the luminaire is also available in lumen outputs from 1400lm to 3000lm for LED, with sources in either 3000k or 4000k colour temperatures. All LED sources offer a high quality colour rendering index of 80+, perfect for high-end retail specifications. Dimming functions are also available for this product (Switch Dim and DALI in LED only), allowing clients to adjust the lighting according to their practical and aesthetic needs.

The dealership saved money not only in terms of reduced energy costs but also at the point of installation. The luminaire minimises the time and expense of installation as it is delivered fully assembled and ready to go (complete with lamps for CDM-T option). Customers can also be supplied with prewired leads of their preference to reduce installation time further.

“The dealership saved money not only in terms of reduced energy costs but also at the point of installation.”

To increase the safety of the building, the LED3 module was installed to provide emergency lighting in various key locations. This standalone emergency unit operates within temperatures of 0ºC to +35ºC and is suitable for a variety of different applications such as: general emergency lighting, corridors and escape routes. The LED3 is manufactured to BS EN 60598.2.22 product standards, delivering a high-performance, low wattage LED light source for increased energy savings. This versatile product is also suitable for surface mounting and installation into plasterboard and suspended ceiling systems.

All the above LED products were offered with Dextra Group’s 5 year warranty, protecting Marriot Motors’ investment further down the line.

The project demonstrates the capabilities of Dextra Group’s award-winning service and its extensive LED range, providing the flexibility to offer both quality and affordability with each order, whilst ensuring it will be delivered on-site within unrivalled delivery times. Due to the success of this project, Dextra Lighting have now been commissioned to redesign the lighting for their larger showroom in Stowmarket.