Wilko is one of the UK’s fastest growing high street retailers with over 380 stores that greet more than 4 million customers every week. Offering a wide range of household products, from housewares and garden furniture to stationery and batteries, the company started to rebrand as Wilko in 2013 to reflect their new mission of ‘where there’s a Wilko, there’s a way’. This enterprise is known for procuring vacant or decommissioned shops for new Wilko sites wherever possible instead of new builds, with the aim of creating a greener footprint.

Sustainability and energy efficiency are high on their list of priorities, as is the aim of building a sustainable business culture which takes responsibility for its actions and supports a more sustainable solution for everyone they deal with and everything they touch. When upgrading their lighting naturally they wanted a solution that was sustainable.

Lighting Objectives

Zumtobel Group’s Thorn, came up with a concept product specifically designed for use across the Wilko estate which, after discussion, became a CAD drawing and an engineering sample was constructed. With agreement over the luminaire, Thorn and Wilko expanded the proposal into a full turnkey lighting solution comprising lighting design, installation, extended warranty and maintenance.

The project was broadened even further to encompass lighting the shop windows, entrance areas, back of house staff support areas, Wilko’s two distribution centres in Manton Woods and Magor and the company’s Headquarters in Worksop. In fact, lighting for the whole Wilko estate will be provided by Thorn by the beginning of 2017 using in excess of 230,000 luminaires, 126,400 installation hours and not a single minute of retail down time.

Solution

The existing surface mounted luminaires in front of house were removed, along with the necessary wiring alterations and have been replaced with Thorn’s 46 Watt recessed fittings, to create a uniform illumination with an average 800 LUX. and the storage areas are lit by the robust moisture-proof Thorn ForceLED luminaire.

Emergency lighting is also included throughout the store and, where required, updated to meet current regulations using a variety of products from the range. Data loggers were installed in a selection of stores’ sales floors post and pre LED installation, with the purpose of obtaining real time figures.

Unprecedented energy savings of up to 60% have been achieved on the sales floor rising to 70% when including back of house and savings in excess of 9802 Kw’s.

Over 150,000 Thorn lighting products and controls have been used which will increase to 230,000 across the full estate, including the new stores, on completion. The project has been totally managed by Thorn, including the surveys, design, installation, commissioning and ongoing maintenance.

Charlotte Whitmore, CSR Manager with Wilko, commented “Energy reduction is one of our environmental priorities within our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy. That’s why we are investing in a LED lighting solution which saves up to 70 per cent energy. As a family business we recognise the long term effect of climate change and this investment will help contribute towards reducing our overall carbon emissions. We are pleased to have Zumtobel Group as our lighting partner. The new LED lighting will enhance the enhance the customer experience in store and require virtually no maintenance for several years. Zumtobel Group will provide an effective solution for all our stores so that we can focus on our core business helping people to achieve their ‘to dos’”.