Lighting up Prime time

Solar Bollard Lighting not only caught the judges’ eye at last year’s Moreton Bay Region Business and Innovation Awards – Network 10 producers have also taken note.

Now the Brendale company is to appear in a new Channel 10 and Prime Video series Australia By Design Innovation, which starts at the end of January.

Solar Bollard Lighting has developed vandal and impact-resistant bollards which are also suitable for flood-prone areas and regions affected by cyclones.
They will appear on the fifth series of the Innovation show, which first aired in 2017, though the exact broadcast date is not yet known.

Twelve months ago, Solar Bollard Lighting also hit the headline winning the Moreton Bay Region’s Environment and Sustainability Award, Exporting Excellence title and being named Business of the Year.

The awards are not being held this year due to COVID-19, which arrived just weeks after the 2019 presentations impacting markets and turnover.
However, the shutdown did open up opportunities within Solar Bollard Lighting.
“The shutdown affected parts of our export market,” says founder Mike Arieni, “but it also gave us time to upgrade the website, work on marketing documents, apply for trademarks. It made us look harder at production.”
Mike admitted they had three tough months, but Solar Bollard Lighting maintained its staffing levels and is back to 60/70 per cent capacity.

The business has tendered for work at the Heron’s Head Park for the Port of San Francisco and has recently added new agents in Morocco, Costa Rica, Chile, Paraguay, five more in the US and one more in Canada.

It has new manufacturers, sales and distribution agents for the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain – with discussions underway in Portugal – and is represented in 19 countries across five continents.

Mike, the managing director and designer, is also investigating buying new premises, with his preference to stay in the Moreton Bay Region

“I’d like to stay in Brendale. I like the area. There’s a good network and good business people,” says Mike, who started the business in 2004.

Adding to the business’s accolades, Solar Bollard Lighting won this year’s Australia International Good Design Awards Good Design gold trophy for Product Design Furniture and Lighting.