our history

The Lighting & Interiors Group has changed beyond all recognition from its beginnings back in 1979 when Mike Tinkler began making ‘mob cap’ lampshades from his home...

Having found a gap in the market, orders increased and the house soon filled with fabric, trimmings and wire frames.

In 1987, manufacturing was moved to premises in Cheadle, South Manchester under the name Village Lighting.

Through gradual expansion and acquiring a pottery in Stoke (Audley Pottery) and a lampshade manufacturing factory in Bradford, Village Lighting employed in excess of 160 people overall.

Village Lighting became one of the UK's leading lighting manufacturers and wholesalers supplying a wide range of table lamps and lampshades to most of the main high street chains.

In 1996 Village Lighting bought Philip Salter & Son, a mid-range lighting manufacturer in Bolton.
The two companies fully merged in 1997, relocating to the larger premises, Cobden Mill in Farnworth.

Mike bought Cobden Mill in 2001 and at present the company operates over 5 floors with 200,000 sq ft of warehousing and distribution including a showroom and offices, allowing the company to centralise all its operations from one site with great transport links to the whole of the UK.

Village Lighting was one of the first UK lighting manufacturers to import products directly from the Far East which in turn has helped forge strong relationships with suppliers that are maintained to this day.

The Company Today

As demand for our products grew, Village Lighting successfully diversified into wall art, picture frames, vases and furniture.

In 2005 the company found the name Village Lighting no longer covered all the product areas encompassed and saw it was the perfect time to re-brand as ’The Lighting & Interiors Group’.

We now employ around 20 staff in the UK and supply a wide range of well known high street stores both on an FOB basis or direct from our UK warehouse/distribution site.

We regularly produce catalogues to showcase our stocked range from which we supply the ever increasing ‘independent’ sector.

The product range has once again returned to lighting, where we feel we are strongest and can continue to supply design-led lines at very competitice prices.

We are proud to say that we still retain a number of customers that were first supplied in the 1980’s - true testiment to our belief that we have something special to offer.