Updated June 16, 2020

Dear Customer

As a Company our family extends across the globe to our Customers and Suppliers in many European and Asian countries and we know that many people have already been impacted.

Therefore, even as we start to come out of Lockdown, we are continuing to take the utmost care to protect our Teams, as well as our Customers and Suppliers. We have adapted our working environment and many of our Teams who can work from home are still doing so.

Our main warehouse remains open. However, we are taking the strongest safeguards to ensure hygiene and social distancing is continued to be observed amongst our warehouse team. As part of this we have split our teams into two whilst ensuring all members are always wearing gloves and masks and everyone have their own sanitiser.

Furthermore, due to the high demand being experienced in the home delivery network we are aware of possible delays to deliveries in some areas. We and our courier partners are doing all we can to get your order to you at the expected time, but please bear with us if there are any delays.

We remain available for you to place orders online 24/7 at lyco.co.uk. We have also increased the level of support we are offering via our Live Chat service extending both into the evenings as well as at weekends. Please bear in mind that all our teams are working remotely so the speed of their response may vary depending on how busy they are helping other Customers.

We have experienced a surge in demand for our products. This has resulted in our Supply Chain team working tirelessly to replenish stocks as quickly as we can. We are continuing to update our website with the latest information available to us but if something you are looking for is not in stock please check with us when it’s expected to be back in stock.

Of course, this is a fast-changing and developing situation which we are constantly reviewing hour-by-hour, day-by day. As and when we have any further news to pass on, we will do so as quickly as we can.

Finally, to further assist our Customers during this period of lockdown we have extended the period for you to return any items to 12 weeks.

We continue with passion to support our teams, our Customers and our Suppliers with the same vision and values that we have had in place since we commenced trading 25 years ago.

We send our support to any affected family and ask you to take the precautions you need to stay healthy.

Thank you for your continuous support and loyalty

Charles Barnett
CEO and Founder

Our award-winning level of customer care is a source of pride to us, and we constantly strive to maintain and improve it. The best way of assessing our performance is through customer service ratings.

With this in mind, we are delighted to announce that Lyco has been awarded ‘Platinum Trusted Merchant 2020’ status from Feefo. To achieve this, we have successfully achieved Gold Standard Customer Service for five years in a row – a rating of over 90% on reviews collected during 2019.

This award is testament to our strong customer focus.

To inspire confidence, we display the Feefo icon in the header of our website. Visiting our Feefo reviews page gives access to all customer service and product reviews from the current and previous years. The reviews are unedited, so positive and negative comments are visible alongside any responses from us. You can also quickly see reviews using the supplied tab on product pages.

Customer feedback: completing the cycle

Before we offer items for sale, they are sourced from worldwide manufacturers, evaluated, and either selected or rejected by our expert team of buyers. Various criteria affect the selection process, including build quality, design, packaging and presentation, price, and whether the product brings anything new to our existing ranges.

Once an item is added to our collection, it is carefully placed online with specifications and photos. Always ready to answer questions is our friendly and informed sales team.
The vital link in each transaction, however, is the buyer, who forms an unbiased view of the service we provide and the products we sell. A feedback system gives customers a voice and acts as a helpful guide for other shoppers. It has become an asset to us, too.

Responding to criticism

If our service falls short in any way, we try to improve and make the necessary changes to our operation. Any negative product-specific feedback is addressed and resolved directly with our suppliers. This ensures that products are amended or removed from the range as necessary to avoid multiple customers experiencing similar problems. By listening to our customers, we at Lyco can make more advised choices about the brands, products, and ranges we sell in the future.

Our guarantees

Despite our best efforts, we know there will be times when products do not quite meet the expectations of our customers. Our ‘change your mind guarantee’ is available with the vast majority of products and gives total peace of mind when shopping. You can return any item that fails to satisfy within 14 days for a full refund.

The change your mind guarantee does not apply to products made to order, though these are often covered by a manufacturer’s guarantee. In the rare event that no guarantee exists, any item found to be damaged or faulty on receipt is repaired or replaced without fuss.

Customer reviews inspire an open and honest relationship between retailers and shoppers. We hope our new Feefo status proves our commitment to high quality service and care. Our final promise is that we will endeavour to improve even further, based on all that you say.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.

Welcome to an introduction to our Lighting Projects Team. Our dedicated team of customer centric, experienced and dedicated experts are on-hand to support your projects no matter how large or small.

Over the past 25 years Lyco has worked on a huge range of projects, varying from specialist care home installation, LED lighting projects at historic hotels, to lighting management of international hospitality brands across the world. We are proud to offer bespoke lighting designs, site surveys with installation recommendations, and true return on investment calculations.

We have supported businesses across a number of industries in the UK and around the world. To find out more about our work read on below.

• Restaurant & Bars
• Hotels
• Commercial Spaces
• Retail Stores

Our Customers:

Laura Mutch Project Manager

Laura has been our key project manager for large accounts and partners for over 7 years. With 13 years’ experience in the lighting industry, she offers expert technical advice, specialist pricing and can support you with LED conversion projects, refits and store or commercial openings. Laura works with multi-million pound contracts across the UK, Europe, Middle East and Asia with well known brands such as Five Guys, PAUL UK Patisserie and Sunrise Care Homes.

This year, we’re celebrating the 25th birthday of Lyco Group. What started out as just four enthusiastic employees, has grown over the past quarter of a century beyond our wildest imaginations. Many things have changed since then – new websites, offices, colleagues, and even new businesses have joined the Lyco Group since we first started out.

Today we thought we’d take a look back at Lyco Group’s transformation over the past 25 years, and remember some of the changes that have made us who we are today.

Welcomed new colleagues

Out of the four original members of staff, we’re so proud that one of them is still with us today – albeit with slightly less hair than when he first started.

25 years on, we’ve grown to become a team of over 50 wonderful lighting experts, buyers and customer service members – and some of our team now are even younger than Lyco Group itself!

We’ve welcomed new colleagues and said farewell to old ones, but one thing will never change. We are just as committed to providing our customers with the very best service today as we always have been, both online and offline.

Launched new businesses

Back in 2010, we acquired the Lighting Direct website, where we provide quality lighting directly to customers. Since we launched this part of our business, it has grown to become one of our biggest assets to our portfolio.

Recently in 2018, we purchased Online Lighting as well. The site already had a loyal customer base, but they were struggling to take the next step. We have brought it in-house and together, utilising the skills of our talented workforce, we’re growing this new side of the business into what we hope will become the UK’s leading lighting supplier for your home.

Lyco Group has grown considerably since we first started, and it continues to grow all the time. In fact, we already can’t wait to see how much further we can go over the next 25 years.

Moved home

There always comes a time in life when you outgrow your old digs. With two new businesses on board and a great deal more staff, we realised the time had come for us, so we packed up and moved out of our premises in Bletchley.

We found a fantastic new home for Lyco Group in Crownhill Milton Keynes. It has given us scope to continue growing and to increase the number of lights we can stock. This means we can now get products out to our customers the very next day.

Our new office space means we can keep growing over the next decade and continue to increase our range of products while offering the best service possible.

Embraced the latest technology

Over the past 25 years we’ve seen a lighting revolution with the introduction of LED bulbs. Back when we first started, we were selling halogen bulbs that needed constantly replacing every 1,000 hours. The LED bulbs we stock now have a lifespan of up to 50,000 hours – a dramatic step forward creating huge savings for our customers.

But it isn’t just lighting technology that’s changed over the past 25 years. When we first started we were a small mail order company with paper order forms. Now, you can simply place an order on our website in minutes.

As technology continues to progress, so will we. We have big plans for 2020, but we can’t let you in on those secrets just yet.

But some things never change…

Despite all the incredible, challenging and unexpected changes that have occurred over the years – there are some things that will never change.

We are still committed to our mission statement: to provide lighting products of supreme quality, from world-class suppliers, coupled with unbeatable customer service.

Despite the world moving online, we’ve maintained our fantastic in-house support team who are always available at the end of the phone to serve our customers and answer their questions. We also continue to offer an annual printed catalogue with our new and bestselling products. While many companies have forgotten the art of direct mail, we continue to hear powerful stories from our customers who treasure these printed publications. It is our hope that while we continue to improve our online offering, we also continue to offer the best-in-class service to our customers – whether that’s online, over the phone or face-to-face.

It’s certainly been a rollercoaster two and a half decades, and it doesn’t look like we’ll be slowing down any time soon.

Thank you

We’d like to thank you for all your custom and continued loyalty over the past 25 years. We hope we can continue to support your lighting requirements for the next 25 and beyond.

Please don’t hesitate to send us your feedback on our products or the service we provide. We’d love to hear from you – drop us an email at [email protected]

Very best wishes,

Charles Barnett, Managing Director.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.

In August, we surveyed 300 of our Lighting Direct customers to find out how lighting has affected their past experiences when visiting hospitality venues such as a restaurants, bars, hotels, pubs or cafés.

Of those surveyed, 80% said that lighting had a negative effect on their experience, and nine out of ten went so far as to say bad lighting would be enough to put them off revisiting a venue in the future.

The main consensus for these consumers was that establishments are being too extreme with their
lighting in bid to try and create a particular type of atmosphere: Most guests complained that rooms were too dark; a third thought fixtures were badly positioned, and; 15% said the lighting was too bright.

It’s often said that we eat with our eyes, so the fact restaurants were consistently marked as the worst offending venues for bad lighting makes a lot of sense, as not being able see a dish – or read a menu – detracts from the overall dining experience somewhat.

Lyco’s MD, Charles Barnett commented on the research, saying “customers’ spend is typically higher in a restaurant than it might be in a bar, pub, or café and therefore the expectation to get things ‘just right’ is probably elevated. Secondly, there is a requirement to read a menu which would immediately highlight any problems with lighting.”

Getting the lighting ‘just right’, or in the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ as we like to call it, is no easy task as there is no one-size-fits-all approach – even a restaurant chain with lots of experience in lighting design will face consistency challenges between sites, based on factors such as building size, the type of building, the amount of natural light coming in etc.

The research also revealed that 60% of people would be more likely to visit an establishment if they were given the option to adjust the lighting over their table to suit their own requirements, an innovation we refer to as ‘hypercontrol’. This is something we expect to be more common in 2018, as more restaurants and bars look to smart lighting as a way of providing innovative experiences for their guests.

Beyond lighting, there are many other factors that influence a customer’s decision to return to a particular establishment, but the market is so competitive that the winners will be the ones that not only listen to consumer feedback, but also act upon it.

For more information and to speak to one of our lighting experts about your next project, please contact us today.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.