Penny Hydaulics

Clowne lift workers get a lift from new lighting

Penny Hydraulics makes swing lift cranes for vans and lorries as well as its own range of goods lifts. The business installed low energy LED lighting after receiving £15,000 from the D2 Energy Efficiency grant scheme.

‌Not only are the LEDs helping save money on energy bills, they’re also enhancing the quality of the Clowne-based firm’s products due to the improved lighting.

I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved,” he said. “In particular paint spraying and assembly has been made much easier and better due to the incredible improvement in light quality. The fact that there is also a large cost saving is a real bonus. It would have been difficult for the company to justify the expense of going 100% LED in one go and so the grant has brought forward quality improvements, overhead reduction and the corresponding CO2 savings. A real win-win situation.

The grant application went very smoothly and only took a week to get approved. Without it we couldn’t have afforded to change all of the lighting in one go, we would have had to do one building at a time, which would have caused a lot of disruption. The guys in the factory are happy as it makes their jobs much easier and it is a better place to work.”

Penny Hydraulics employs 85 people at its plant on Station Road, Clowne, which has been on an energy saving journey through modernisation of its premises including solar panels on the roof, an upgrade to some of the lights and an advanced heating controller.

The £15,000 grant was put toward the total cost of the project which was £40,000, plus vat.

Future proof

The firm’s finance director Ashley Holmes said the investment in energy saving technologies helped the company become more resilient for the future as it was less affected by changes in energy prices. He added:

Having LED lights throughout the factory will go a long way in supporting our commitment to the environment and help with our ISO 14001 environmental management application.”