Christie Lites opens Coventry UK office

UK / USA - Christie Lites is ‘crossing the pond’ with the opening of Christie Lites Coventry in the UK. This new office is Christie’s first expansion outside of North America. The North American lighting and rigging rental company is bringing its successful business model from its network of 12 office warehouse locations across the US and Canada to further serve client demand into the UK and Europe - and vice versa.
Christie Lites CEO Huntly Christie says: “We have always expanded to places where we can best support our long-standing client partners. We’ve had inquiries for years about expansion overseas from various genres of clientele, including touring, theatre, auto and trade shows, corporate - the full gamut of our business. The time is finally right, with a great alignment of eager new staff, solid equipment support and motivated customers. Our first overseas opening parallels our expansion across North America, and is just one more step in Christie Lites’ continued organic growth.”
Fit up of the CL Coventry location is currently underway with doors planned to open in early April. Operations and account rep team hirings will be announced soon.
This 3,716sq.m (40,000sq.ft) warehouse setup will mirror all of Christie Lites’ other warehouses, fully stocked with CL preferred manufacturer’s brands of lighting (such as Martin by Harman, Elation, ETC, MA Lighting and more) and rigging products (Liftket/TourRig, CM and more) as well as Christie Lites’ own diverse blend of proprietary truss designs.
Dan Souwand, president of operations, says: “Essentially, once a client enters our new UK warehouse they will know instantly that they are in a CL shop. The warehouse racking, road cases, shop machinery, are all the same. Shop processes, prep standards and service levels will be consistent with what clients have already come to enjoy for the past 30 years across North America.”
Its location in Lyons Park on the western outskirts of Coventry offers easy access. The M42, M6 and M1 motorways form a “golden distribution triangle” with 89 percent of England and Wales within four hours’ drive. It also has convenient access to the M69, M40 and M5 motorways. The A45 trunk road linking Coventry and Birmingham is just “moments away”. From the Coventry office, it’s 20 minutes to Birmingham airport, two-plus hours to central London and seven hours to Paris.
The Christie Lites Coventry location now joins the family of Christie Lites’ US rental network in Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Nashville, New York, Orlando and Seattle; and in Canadian cities of Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg.
(Jim Evans)

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