A Company that has been part of the North East’s shipping industry since 1884 is looking to the Far East as it opens another chapter in its impressive history.
North Shields firm Lilley & Gillie, which makes navigational equipment like nautical instruments telescopes, compass etc. for ships, has just completed one of the most lucrative orders in its history with the sale of £100,000-worth of wind speed and directional indicator equipment.
The contract with Chinese firm Via Marine Co follows a series of deals in the Far East, with the region now accounting for 95% of sales at Lilley & Gillie.
The company now aims to increase its turnover from £6m to £7m next year as a result of its involvement with countries including Japan and Malaysia as well as through improvements to its wind technology and magnetic speed logs.
Managing director Glenn Heathcote said: “Our successful relationship with Via Marine is a significant step forward in the development of our name and product range in the Chinese market. The Far East is having its own industrial revolution and is replacing traditional areas, including the UK, as the new shipping hub.”
The company has seen many changes since John Wilson Gillie founded it, then known as Wilson and Gillie. The firm went through many name changes at the beginning of the 20th Century after merging with a series of nautical instrument firms that had been badly affected by the growing popularity of rail travel. As John Lilley and Gillie, the firm began forging strong links with European manufacturers, such as Observator in Rotterdam and by 1975 began entering the field of marine electronics.
This progression was helped by the acquisition of Birmingham’s Thomas Walker & Son in 2002, which makes military grade instrumentation systems and has seen the firm supply a number of products to the Government.
Today manufacturing of engineering and antique nautical instrument requires high degree of precision. In the present scenario of competition, utmost care is taken in manufacturing followed by a thorough quality check to avoid discrepancies between our words and consignments. The manufacturing of engineering and antique nautical instrument requires high degree of precision. In the present scenario of competition, utmost care is taken in manufacturing followed by a thorough quality check to avoid discrepancies between our words and consignments.
Mr Heathcote said: “We have gone through a number of monumental changes throughout our history and believe that, through our links in the Far East, we can continue to grow into the future.”
Our exquisitely crafted nautical items are available i various finishes such as nickle, brass, chrome, black oxidized, silver, copper, gold and antique finish. Raw material used in the manufacture of these items include brass, gunmetal, glass and sheesham wood.
These telescopes and binoculars are the reproduction of antique telescopes and binoculars, made by using high quality solid brass, wood and are polished beautifully to give best looks. Well finished beautiful stand is given along with some of the telescopes. The range includes: Hand mop binocular, wood carving binocular, chase binocular and special binocular etc.
The telescope takes us to the ancient times when stargazing was considered as a work of fools. Astro-Physicist were considered as the most foolish people who worked against the laws of nature. The then made telescopes are the source of our inspiration. We are trying to reproduce these telescopes in their original shapes but using metal pipes instead of wood or bone as were used in ancient times.
Here, we have shown just a glimpse of the comprehensive range of products available with us. For more details, please don't hesitate to write to us.