PROFILE Festive Lights
Liverpool Football Club by Festive Decorators
Cross Street Twinkly Wreath & Garland
Shining a Light on
Seasonal Success Festive Lights is one of the big retail winners of the last few years, expanding their expertise in the competitive Christmas lighting sector. Next on the list is an exciting launch at Spring Fair… Middlesbrough Town lights
40 christmas in february
I
t’s been five years since the eagle-eyed marketing team at Festive Lights came across Italian lighting brand Twinkly and Twinkly Pro on social media, and discussed its potential with the team of directors who head up the company. It’s fair to say that since then the partnership has been a hugely fruitful one, with Festive Lights securing the UK distribution rights for the Twinkly brand in 2018. Exciting plans for 2022 include the launch of Festive Lights’ second Twinkly showroom in February – a custom-build space in Colchester, that will offer customers new and old a ‘fully immersive Twinkly experience’ – and the launch at Spring Fair of the Twinkly Pro Features Collection. But then you’d expect nothing less from the family behind this hugely proactive and digitally savvy company. Festive Lights was founded by Mark Higginson in 1999, partly by circumstance, but really due to his clever business sense. Mark, who is still Managing Director alongside his wife Margaret, was liaising with factories in the Far East to produce a car security device he had invented, when he
happened upon opportunities in the Christmas lighting sector. Having imported a container of seasonal lights and run a hugely successful Christmas shop for one season, Festive Lights grew from there. Mark and Margaret now run the company with their four children, Matt, Mark Jr, Martin and Michelle, as well as Michelle’s husband Stephen. Matt, who is the Business Sales Director, explains that Festive Lights has built a ‘likeminded and exuberant’ partner network in their role as UK supplier for Twinkly, and boast a plethora of commercial clients as well. As the leading app-controlled light system on the market, Twinkly has become very big business – both in terms of retail and commercial sales. Twinkly Pro is leading the way in Smart Lighting, and the list of household names that Festive Lights has created unbelievable displays for makes for jaw-dropping reading. From Manchester City and Liverpool Football Clubs, John Lewis (Oxford Street) and Media City in Salford to numerous garden centres and hospitality venues, and huge-scale city and town centre displays in Plymouth, Peterborough and
christmasinjanuary.co.uk