100 years for shipyard lighting specialist

The company says it has grown and evolved continuously, relocating in the 1930s, diversifying into electrical equipment in the 1940s and becoming a major supplier to the offshore sector from the 1970s onwards.

Originally known as Andrew Chalmers & Mitchell, the company began as a brass founder supplying Clyde shipbuilders with marine fittings. The Cunard-White Star liner RMS Queen Mary, built by the John Brown yard in 1934, used Chalmit fittings. From the 1950s the company began to service a larger marine market including fishing, merchant shipping and the international market.

The development of North Sea oil and gas from the 1970s saw the company become a specialist supplier of lighting for hazardous areas and harsh environments. This led to international diversification and the opening of offices in Utrecht, the Netherlands 1979 and Singapore in 1989.

Now part of the Connecticut based Hubbell Electrical Group, research, design and manufacturing remain in Glasgow.

The company says that it continues to invest in innovation and seek new challenges to take it into the next 100 years.