Blog
MARL Team Celebrates 50th Anniversary
April 2023 will be memorable in Ulverston, Cumbria as the MARL team celebrates 50 years of trading from the Lake District town.
During the next few weeks, we will be sharing some thoughts from the team. The average length of service with the company is an amazing 14 years, 38 members of the team have long term service awards and the combined experience operating in some of the most demanding markets in the world now exceeds 827 years!
Image: MARL's first premises, Marl Park
There have been many memorable moments, especially with some of the more unusual (yet prestigious) contract awards, such as: supplying Kodak factories with LED lighting in the 1980s, LED signalling for London Underground and working with Pink Floyd in the 1990s and some key defence contracts in the early parts of the new century. Contract awards moving into the 2000s have included counter IED systems for Iraq and Afghanistan and then more recently, the upgrade of the Bakerloo Line underground trains in London. We’re now seeing the success with maritime lighting for the GCS Frigate programme as we move through the 2020s.
Images: MARL's second and third premises; The Ellers and Stone Cross
From my perspective, one of the most significant days was the MBO which I led 15 years ago. Although it has been challenging and at times very stressful, on balance I think the Team have done a fantastic job of transforming MARL into a highly capable electronic lighting and ruggedised systems designer and manufacturer.
It’s an exciting time for MARL and I am optimistic that the company will continue to thrive and evolve for a long time into the future.
Adrian Rawlinson
MARL Business Park
