Sycamore LED | SUPPLIER PROFILE
SycamoreLED Saturn 3 tunable LED mirror
T
Yorkshire,
he new 10,000sq ft warehouse, offices and showroom in Garforth, is
the base for
SycamoreLED’s new Bathroom Division, where I am meeting new MD Mike Edmond and national sales manager Natalie Paley to talk about the company’s plans for a major push to increase its presence in the bathroom lighting market, how it feels to be celebrating 25 years in business, and some exciting new product developments in the pipeline. Sycamore also has a 10,000sq ft base in Swillington, which has a showroom and an innovation centre. Sycamore was founded in 1998 by entrepreneur Gary Baxter, who retired earlier this year. New MD Mike Edmond joined the company seven years ago as national sales manager, as he explains: “There had been a long- standing succession plan and I was brought in to be sales director or potentially MD. I had a background in lighting and then moved into the KBB business as national sales manager having worked in sales for 20 years. I moved internally after five years to gain a better understanding of the business. It was a natural progression for me when the MD position became vacant. We also brought Natalie in as national sales manager.” Paley worked previ-
August 2023 •
ously for Coram and Bathroom Brands. She reveals their plans for Sycamore’s 25th anniversary: “We will be having an open day in Garforth and will open the showroom for customers to have a look around. We will also offer display promotions that will run through to the end of August.”
Milestone
Edmond adds: “It is a significant milestone for any company to still be in business after 25 years. It comes back to the core people we have working here. There are plenty of companies that come and go after just a couple of years and if we are putting a five-year warranty on our products, people can be sure we will still be here.”
Sycamore’s push into bathrooms was high on the agenda when Edmond took over as MD. He tells me: “We have made massive strides into the bathroom industry and have made a
these retailers on a day-to-day basis, but weren’t selling [bathroom products] to them.”
We offer huge support to
designers and if necessary we will do the lighting design for them
Mike Edmond, MD, SycamoreLED
significant investment. There is only so much KBB lighting out there and we realised we could be pushing forward with bathroom mirrors and cabinets. We were already speaking to most of
Independent studios are a key part of the company’s push into bathrooms, as Paley explains: “Our strategy is to focus on the independent bathroom retailer, educating the designers, being innovative with our products and always trying to think of the next thing rather than following trends.” Sycamore knows how important it is to help customers visualise what a lighting scheme will look like in their home. “It has been key to make sure we are on the Virtual Worlds design platform and to partner with Easy Quote and TruBlue,” says Paley. “One of the biggest hurdles for designers is being able to show cus - tomers how it will look in their own space. These platforms help to show customers how it will look and feel and have taken it to the next level.” Edmond tells me that SycamoreLED has seen double-digit growth in the past year and one particularly strong area
has been smart-tech products, which saw triple-digit growth. “It has been a huge focus for us, where we weren’t focusing on before,” says Edmond. Commenting on how the
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