Most of us don’t think much about lighting as long as we have enough to easily see what we’re doing. The types of lights used in offices, warehouses and homes play a huge role in the productivity and efficiency of employees and the overall mood in one’s home. The right type of lighting can lift your spirits and make you more relaxed. This is what Angele Calleja, Director at VCT Malta, had to say to Design & Build.
A ngele Calleja has been in the lighting business for the past three decades. The company was set up by her late father Victor – who had started off from a small garage in Mosta, back in the 1980s.
As time passed, most of the family became involved. Angele had joined the family ranks from another company to take on the management and retail side of the company. Her brother Duncan is involved in the operations and wholesale sector. Another sister though not directly involved in the company runs her now well-established lighting and interior design company.
The move also saw a change in name – from ‘Victor Calleja Trading’ to ‘VCT’ – the siblings had felt that the name’s fine tuning was indicative of the firm’s progression into becoming the well-established quality brand it indeed evolved into being.
In 2010, company growth required a move to larger premises – a long and painful process, as described by Angele. And though a lot has been done, there are still developments being carried out. The unfortunate passing of their father Victor last year saw the Calleja siblings go through an unsettling time but thankfully the strong bond between the siblings and the tightly-knit team enabled them to carry on unscathed.
Bringing up the Covid-19 pandemic into the conversation was inevitable. The past months have not been easy, with the virus wreaking havoc to many businesses. A swathe of local projects came to a sudden halt resulting in a downturn which did not overlook VCT either.
It’s very hard to sell a lifestyle upgrade with a mask on your face!
Yet Angele and her team retained the trading volume to continue as before; VCT was able to continue serving their customers by the door or through online channels.
In fact, the lockdown that many people experienced served as a time for VCT to undergo mini-refurbishments and to tighten their operations, and corroborate their strategy and long-term objectives – along with the continued running of the show.
C-19 measures meant that the usual method of a personalised approach had to be cut short. And the fact that personal contact during its height was disallowed gave Angele one of her greatest challenges. Despite not closing down completely Angele explained that it was very challenging to sell a lifestyle upgrade with a mask on your face and by just showing images of a product. In this business, simply examining a lighting product will seldom suffice to present to the buyer the effect its emitted light will have upon its surroundings. And therefore, customer interaction is vital when one needs to provide great service, as Angele does. Furthermore, never in her thirty year career, has she had to serve customers on the showroom’s doorstep.
VCT has hence kept making great strides in its operational management processes. Their efficiency levels have increased, and as Angele put it – “We have become even more highly tuned ‘machines’ in order to serve our customers as efficiently as the property, construction and interiors industries require us to be.”
That Italy was in complete lockdown meant that VCT’s new stock deliveries from their Italian brands ground to a halt. Indeed, one of VCT’s suppliers closed the very day items destined for Malta were about to be shipped.
This frustrating situation was mitigated partially by the understanding of VCT’s clients as well as by their absolute refusal to adopt any ‘JIT’ operational methods. Angele was particularly moved by her clients’ understanding – going to show the high level of mutual respect that prevails between Angele and her clients.
This respect is the outcome of years of personal attention, flexibility and commitment to delight their clients. This is what must lie behind that which makes VCT different and so special, Angele mused.
Being a family business greatly assists the team in their ‘feeling the pulse’ of each customer. All clients get personal attention and more often than not, Angele takes it on herself in touching base to see how a project is progressing.
I firmly believe that when you treat a customer well, that customer is a customer for life
For VCT, it is not just about selling; the buck doesn’t stop there. Client feedback is highly important. Issues are not thrown under the proverbial carpet but are faced head on, ensuring that the right action is taken. There have been cases when, despite an error being made from the client’s side – for the sake of a long standing relationship VCT has been known to absorb costs just to ensure that the client is happy with the end result.
Their modus operandi and good business practices are echoed by means of the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority’s Trust You Scheme Certification; awarded only to those who meet their pre-given criteria.
As VCT are nearing their fourth decade in business, what is in store for them? Would it be consolidation of what is already in place? Or is there desire to create new projects?
Angele firmly states that it is about consolidation and expansion – the main focus will remain on lighting.
Her face lights up – pun intended, when speaking about the industry she operates in; explaining that lighting has taken great strides forward within the past decades too. LED is both the moment and the future – primarily because LED lighting reduces energy consumption by up to 80%, which benefits users and the environment. And this level of energy reduction means massive cost savings.
VCT have a massive range of products which cater for a lot of different requirements, ideas and establishments. The products are actual tools which cater for the needs of architects and designers, gypsum installers, electricians and general clientele. The products chosen are those that are easy to install and maintain, making life easier for clients – for example an electrician will find a full range of high quality yet highly cost effective cables, conduits, switchgears and so forth. Angele declared that further the previous showroom – currently unused – is to soon become a specialised tool shop for electricians.
Differentiate your properties and home through lighting design.
photo: Lighting elements, carried exclusively by VCT
Going back to the range of brands, the portfolio ensures a full line of products that range from lamps, filaments, decorative and retro looking lamps, specialised studio lighting, light fittings, architectural lighting., outdoor fittings, wall lights, hanging lights, lights for decking, hotels, special LED for office lighting – necessary for the comfort of office ambience – various types and colours – depending on customers’ preferences and projects. All brands – highly renowned in their own right – hail from various European Union countries and are exclusively represented by VCT. All brands are chosen for their high quality and value for money.
Diminishing footprints
Bar what is destined to be a simple flux in the equation due to the current situation, land will continue becoming scarcer while our population levels keep increasing – the typical footprint of today’s properties being sold is forced into smaller scale. At the same time, developers’ time frames to release their finished properties onto the retail market have likewise diminished.
Would you agree, we asked Angele, that today’s properties ought to compensate for these factors by being released at higher quality levels of finishes? And if so, is lighting an effective means to this end?
She explains that the importance of lighting is perennial and two-fold. An investment in correctly lighting one’s finished properties will enhance the available space. The studied offerings of a combination of lighting design, with the added inclusion of ambient lighting and ambient lighting will affect the mind’s consideration of space. When done right, she asserts, lighting can pull one’s vision to those spaces which embellish the environment the most, and diminish the weaker elements of one’s surroundings.
Angele continues to opine that beautiful lighting, as well as beautiful lighting fixtures and elements will add value to one’s properties and home and add a distinct differentiating factor which could cause the buyer to lean onto that particular availability.
The studied offerings of a combination of lighting design, with the inclusion of ambient lighting and ambient lighting will affect the mind’s consideration of space
In short, having the right lighting ensures added value to the property being purchased. Gone are the days when chandeliers were installed in the middle of a room (or when bulbs were simply attached to point ends).
Lighting Techniques
There are so many different kinds of lighting; Ambient lighting – the foundation for all lighting in a room; Task lighting – creating lighting to better accomplish a specific activity; Accent Lighting – highlighting key objects and focal points; to name a few.
Lighting will always be used to illuminate space, but advances have shown that manipulating light produced can indeed improve the health and well-being of those within the ambiance in question
Mood lighting is also gaining ground. This type of lighting seems to be representing a paradigm shift; one that goes from lighting for space to lighting for people. WiFi controlled mood lighting products are evolving and becoming far more mainstream than ever before.
Conclusion
The team at VCT is very particular when choosing a brand. Angele reiterates what she stated before – it is not just about selling a product but ensuring that a good after sales service is given to – so choosing a brand will also depend on the level of support given by the mother company to ensure that any problems can be resolved with little delays.
Lighting, Angele concludes, is a significant, yet too often overlooked, element in the creation of quality interior design. Although natural light is probably the best kind of light, particularly for rooms seeing regular use, lighting elements can bring a room to life. Light fittings can allow individuals to be imaginative yet practical. Bad lighting can signal an environment’s death knoll just as much as great lighting products and techniques can inject lifeblood into it.
In essence, let there be light!
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