Blog
2023 Annual Review
By Adrian Rawlinson
A year ago, I commented that the world has become unstable and chaotic, and that the energy crisis and resulting pressure on people around the world is highly disagreeable. Sadly this has not changed in the past 12 months. On a brighter note however, MARL continues to grow and has had another positive year with a number of exciting initiatives successfully completed:
Low Temperature Tested Indicator
It’s been great to work with our long-standing agent and component distributor in Australia, ADP, and see a new high-performance panel lamp being introduced, which has been tested and approved for use at a very chilly -51°C. View the 682 Series blog entry for more information.
Site Investment
We have continued with our planned investment programme, which this year has seen a £300k investment in the site infrastructure and additional £350k in manufacturing equipment.
Inside the MARL International factory there is a new dark room and optical test facility, fitted with a Gonio Photospectrometer used to generate IES files, in addition to colour measurement, lumens per watt, power factor and total harmonic distortion testing.
Image: Darkroom Light Measurement
Image: Darkroom Setup
Maritime Lighting
Our new maritime lighting suites continue to be very well received. For the UK we have now completed the 3 ships for Batch 1 are now manufacturing the lights and control systems for Ship 4, which was started on the 4th day of the 4th month and as a City Class Frigate has been designated HMS Birmingham. In Australia, the Hunter Class programme is going well and a MARL Team is in Adelaide this month working with REDARC, our trusted and highly capable partners for the programme.
50th Anniversary
Back in April we held a special event to celebrate MARL’s 50th Anniversary, which focused on acknowledging the contribution to the success of the company made by the current team and I think it is fair to say everyone who could be there enjoyed it thoroughly. There were another 5 team members celebrating nearly 100 years of accumulated service.
Image: Linda Pinnegor and Adrian Rawlinson hosting the 50th Anniversary celebrations
Exhibitions
September was a busy month with participation at DSEI (Defence and Security Equipment International), at EXCEL in London Docklands and during the same week some of the MARL team were interviewed by the BBC Economics Team and featured on the main news programmes.
Charity Fundraising
During this year we have continued to support St Mary’s Hospice in Ulverston through various events and also made the decision to make a significant pledge to help fund research into the genetic causes of Lymphoedema, which is one of the most underfunded areas of medicine and healthcare on the developed world. That programme is based at St Georges Hospital in South West London.
2024 promises to be another demanding, but exciting and rewarding year for all facets of MARL and we will continue to release blogs and periodic updates.
Adrian Rawlinson
Managing Director
