Elmdene International recently welcomed Penny Mordaunt, the MP for Portsmouth North, to its facility at Interchange Park in the city as part of the company’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
Elmdene’s Managing Director, Ian Moore, was on hand to take the local MP on a comprehensive tour of the state-of-the-art site which serves as its corporate headquarters, and the main R&D, testing and warehousing hub, for thousands of customers across EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa).
During Penny’s visit she was able to speak to Elmdene’s senior management team, and other key members of the company’s 100 strong highly skilled workforce, employees who are very much an integral part of Elmdene’s success. The MP for North Portsmouth was also briefed on the key stages in the development of Elmdene’s advanced products – such as switch mode PSUs (Power Supply Units) that are typically 80 – 87 per cent efficient, helping users to reduce their carbon footprint and energy bills and saw the rigorous testing that is undertaken on site. In particular, Penny was given a close-up look at the company’s award-winning Merlin Graffiti Detector and one of the latest additions to the facility, a large walk-in anechoic and EMC test chamber, which is helping to give Elmdene an edge over its competition as it looks to bring new solutions to market.
Penny Mordaunt, MP for Portsmouth North, said: “I was delighted to visit Elmdene on its 50th year, and even more so to discover such a thriving business. Well done to all at the company for making it such a success for Portsmouth.”
Ian Moore, Managing Director at Elmdene International, said: “We are very pleased that Penny was able to visit us last Friday to show her support. She was particularly impressed by the efficiency of our manufacturing and logistics facilities and, crucially, the high quality products we produce on-site. With our roots remaining firmly in the area, and a commitment to best practice and a strong R&D base, we are well placed to add to the millions of power supply units, sirens, contacts and ancillaries we have supplied in the course of the last 50 years. The advent of our highly efficient switch mode power supplies, PoE (Power over Ethernet) back-up devices, and a modular external siren, should certainly help to keep our business at the forefront in the security and fire sectors as we move ahead.”
Focusing on how the company has developed in Portsmouth since 1963, it came from small beginnings, even operating out of an owner’s garage at one stage. The 1990s was the decade when momentum really started to build for Elmdene which was then on Warren Avenue. This was when the first power supply appeared. Sirens also started to come to the fore. At the end of the decade, with power supply product lines being added to, Elmdene briefly split into two sites for extra capacity before moving everything to a new base at Rodney Road, the company’s home for another ten years. Eventually the expansion of Elmdene, under the guidance of owners Tony and Celia Earle, meant that it had outgrown even the Rodney Road site, which eventually proved difficult to operate logistically. Rodney Road’s hotchpotch of individual buildings and the need to find additional storage space off site meant that workers would often have to drive forklifts down the public road to simply bring back pallets to the factory.
Undoubtedly, the most significant landmark for the business in recent years, as it grew to record levels, was the acquisition by Potter Electric Signal, LLC – in 2008 – the US-headquartered fire, security and safety company, whose own origins stretch back more than 100 years. This has proved to be an excellent move for Elmdene as they both share a strong commitment to standards and quality, proactively engineering top-level solutions with research and development an essential part of business operations. A couple of years after the Potter deal, Elmdene signalled its intention to prepare for the future in confident fashion by moving into its current home, the impressive integrated 55,000 sq ft Interchange Park facility in 2010. This step increased capacity three-fold and brought everything together – from testing to assembly and warehousing – under one roof which certainly makes much more sense, moving forward, in terms an efficient and effective modern operation.
For more information on Elmdene and its products please call +44(0)23 9269 6638, email: sales@elmdene.co.uk or log on to www.elmdene.co.uk. Elmdene also has a YouTube Channel which can be found at www.youtube.com/ElmdeneInternational, you can also follow the company on Twitter at twitter.com/ElmdeneIntLtd.
