Grant Daniels

The managing director of Thorn Lighting in the UK and Ireland, Grant Daniels, talks to Lighting about taking a step back from the day-to-day business of running a lighting company

This year you will be stepping down and taking a more advisory role. What will you miss?
My career over the past 25 years has been pursuing my hobby of lighting, but really I’ve been running a business. I’ve great worries about how I will survive without the pressures of running a company. I still get quite a kick out of it.

Are you happy with what you’ve achieved with Thorn?
No, because when I came here I didn’t know there was going to be a depression. The figures are not what I wanted and we are still deep in restructuring. The legacy of the structure and the new factory will be something somebody else will pick up and run with.

Has Thorn generally achieved what it should have?
No. During the time it delinked itself from EMI and from lamps there was a lack of investment in new products and ditto in the past 10 years. Thorn attempted to be all things to all men and didn’t have focus. I’d like to think we’ve focused on the client base and on being a company with products that set the generic benchmark for luminaires inside and outside buildings. I think we’re on the right road to recovery.

“Lighting is a fabulous thing. It tickles psychology, it tickles the engineering side and the artistic side”

Thorn or Zumtobel?
Zumtobel. I was a technical director in the north west when I was recruited in 1986 to start Zumtobel in the UK. The name wasn’t known. We built the team from nothing and put the brand in a strong position in the UK market. But in 2007 it was time to call a halt and allow younger, more energetic people to go forth.

What are you proudest of apart from Zumtobel?
I started with Atlas, which was Thorn Lighting, in 1965 and got an exceptional training. The new Spennymoor factory was £28 million, with £3 million on top for the Thorn Academy of Light - exactly the same investment in training that Thorn used to make going back 40 years.

Who have you most admired?
In business, Mike Swingler, the boss of Moorlite and Whitecroft. He turned me from a techie into a commercial wallah. In light fitting designers, it would be Hans T von Malotki. He designed the mega-famous ID-VM fitting for Zumtobel in the 1980s.

What do you feel about your daughter following you into lighting?
I’m very, very pleased. Lighting is a fabulous thing. It tickles psychology, it tickles the engineering side and the artistic side. At huge cost I have one of her chandeliers in my dining room. When I retire I hope that I will be able to help her a lot, but not advise because she’s got her own head.

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