Ciglow Flameless Cigarette Lighter A Fire-Proof Business Idea

Source from:  Neil Hodgson 04/28/2012

Jonathan Williamson & Chris Williamson with their safety cigarette lighterA CHANCE business meeting stoked the fires of inspiration for former chartered accountant Chris Williamson and opened up a whole new career path. The former Mitchell & Charlesworth tax specialist was running a music and corporate events business and was liaising with a Wirral electrical contractor in 2006 eager for exposure.

During the talks a curious little gadget in their office caught his attention which they explained was a flameless cigarette lighter, invented by one of the family in the late 1960s. "He had worked at Shell's Stanlow oil refinery where they had a crude unit fixed up to a car battery, so he thought there must be a better way and came up with this little unit," said Mr Williamson. "But they were only supplying about six units a year to oil rigs." Cue Ciglow Industrial Services. He said: "I saw the potential for it and did a deal where they make the products and Ciglow looks after the sales and distribution." The original idea has now been developed into a range of electronic or solar-powered units aimed at different scenarios where naked flames from conventional lighters or matches would be catastrophic, from oil and gas industry installations to hospitals and social care units, airports, prisons and pubs and nightclubs. Mr Williamson's brother Jonathan joined him straight from university and the product is now global. He said: "Since January this year we have sold just over 400 units and turnover should be ￡300,000 for the first four months of the year. "Our turnover target last year was ￡300,000 and we have now revised our target to ￡1.1m for the year to December 2012." Mr Williamson said the appeal of Ciglow is universal, despite the smoking ban in many European countries. "You will never stop people smoking, so we try and make it safer." The Water Street-based firm makes a range to meet different demands, from a lighter which is flush with the wall for prisons and mental health institutions where sharp edges could prove dangerous to inmates or patients, to a free-standing bollard-type unit that Bangalore Airport has installed. Mr Williamson said: "Oil rigs were the first customers and it was only when we developed the product range that we developed different markets." A recent contract was for a new airport being built by the UAE state of Qatar in time for the 2022 World Cup. The firm has a sales office in New York, with plans for a manufacturing base in Florida, and its products are in several US prisons: "It's quite hard to get into UK prisons, but we are in American and Australian prisons," said Mr Williamson. "One of our big aims this year is to break into the pubs trade. We are trialing new units in Ireland now and are talking to Wetherspoons." But the overseas sector offers huge potential: "Overseas last year was 40% of our market, and since January this year it is 70%." A key outlet will be the Gorgon project off the coast of North West Australia, a man-made island which is the country's biggest energy scheme to harvest natural gas: "They have taken about 100 units and that will be ongoing throughout the year - 100 is just for the construction phase." Mr Williamson has just returned from Singapore after signing a distribution and agency deal: "In Singapore they have two-storey smoking rooms on the street for offices." He also visited Vietnam to assess the market: "There's a lot of big industry there and a lot of manufacturing is being done in Cambodia and Vietnam for that region. "Over the next five years we want to expand into Asia and then expand into Europe, because it is on our doorstep and will be easier to manage." Enditem