With a new range of LED headlights for the bus and coach market to be launched at the Busworld 2015 show in Kortrijk, Belgium next month, UK manufacturer BMAC talks to Transport News Brief.
“Our success comes from innovation,” says Managing Director Mark Rutherford. “We have managed to give the customer exactly what they want, at a competitive price. They are looking for innovation and the life time cost of components.”
BMAC was established in 1927 in London, relocating to north west England in the mid 1980s and now located in a 1,400m2 site in Audenshaw, Manchester. It is now one of the leading UK-based manufacturers of exterior and interior lighting and associated electrical equipment, manufacturing everything from headlamps to signalling, bell pushes and ‘bus stopping’ signs.
Employing more than 35 staff, the company currently turns over in excess of £4 million per year and reports steady growth.
“We are growing at 7-10% per annum, with an active recruitment drive mainly for engineering positions, to support what is a buoyant market with huge growth potential,” said Rutherford.
BMAC splits its business 50/50 between the bus and coach market and the rail business. The majority of its OEM road sector customers are UK bus and coach manufacturers, while the firm’s rail customers are based in Japan, US and Australia.
The company has a strong overseas market of bus and coachbuilders and exports 25% of its production, particularly to China. It also markets its on-road range through dealers across the UK to end users and bus companies.
BMAC’s engineering resources, combined with its extensive experience of design collaboration with major vehicle builders and operators, allows the company to offer design, manufacturing and supply services to customers with specific contract requirements.
These requirements include the design and production of many different types of interior and exterior light fittings, switch assemblies, control panels, audible warning devices and other electro-mechanical components.
Quality products incorporating the very latest technology are designed for ruggedness, long life and reliability in all types of transport applications. All products are designed and engineered in-house, by a dedicated and highly skilled team, using 2D and 3D CAD systems.
“In addition to our range of lighting solutions we are also selling niche products as diverse as wireless bell push systems for applications such as the new bus for London,” said Rutherford.
BMAC works in a highly competitive market, yet has maintained growth through innovation and close collaboration with customers. The development of LED lighting is a case in point, with drivers appreciating the brighter, white lights, and operators responding well to the reduced in-depot downtime that LED lighting delivers.
“We are launching a new range of LED headlights for the bus and coach markets at Busworld next month,” said Rutherford, “with range extension rail lights for Innotrans in Berlin next year.”
BMAC has also recently launched monitored versions of it 115, 116 and 122 Series Duo-Lux Ø90mm LED headlights, delivering fault detection for LED failure, short circuit and open circuit faults. In the rail market it has also unveiled a range of high reliability LED rail headlights and tail/market lights, providing full compliance to current EN and TSI requirements for the pan-European market.
It is this continual drive to deliver increased lighting efficiency and performance, tailored to the specific requirements of individual manufacturers, that has maintained BMAC’s position at the head of the UK lighting and electronic control systems market.
“Our business is growing as we continue to innovate and add value.”
