Lakeside Films Ltd, a road traffic and safety distributor for Avery Dennison Graphics and Reflective Solutions, believes that the quickest route is not always the best route to achieve optimal business results.
Based in Clevedon, Somerset, Lakeside Films is involved in all aspects of the road traffic and safety sector and stocks the appropriate specialist Avery Dennison products, including micro-prismatic Avery Dennison T-7500 MVP (Maximum Visual Performance) reflective and fluorescent sheeting and Avery Dennison HV 1302 REV metallised reflective films. With a carefully-selected platform of five certified specialist converters, Lakeside Films decided to promote these particular products as practical, cost-effective solutions for emergency vehicle markings in today’s quality-conscious, but cost-conscious, marketplace.
Lakeside Films’ Managing Director Scott Horne, who has extensive experience in the self-adhesive signage and graphics industry, considered that the best way to achieve real market penetration was to work directly with the police authorities, and to conduct trials that would prove the efficacy of the films in direct comparison with other solutions.
Partner police authorities
Using the specifications created by the scientific development branch of the UK police as a starting point, which the Avery Dennison products meet in full, Lakeside Films set up formal long-term trials with two UK police authorities. "The aim", says Scott Horne, "was to create a market awareness that there are real performance differences between products available in the emergency vehicle markings market – and ultimately to convince the fleet managers of the police authorities that the Avery Dennison materials that we stock offer a better cost/performance ratio over the whole life of the vehicles. We knew we could prove it."
Working with certified converters, Lakeside Films created markings using the chosen Avery Dennison films for a total of 12 emergency service vehicles within the vehicle fleets of their two partner police authorities and embarked on field trials of the materials that were to last 12-18 months.
The requirements
"While the ultimate visual appearance and daytime/night-time visibility of the markings were what really interested the police authorities’ fleet managers, we were just as concerned to prove the Avery Dennison retro-reflective materials in terms of conversion, finishing, reflectivity values and resistance to water ingress," continues Scott Horne. "Avery Dennison T-7500 MVP fluorescents and Avery Dennison HV 1302 REV retro-reflective films are high-performance, micro-prismatic products, offering exceptional convenience and economy in conversion – and the only such products available for emergency vehicle markings. Omni-directional films mean that the chevron markings can be neatly “nested” on the signshop plotter to save waste – up to 7-10% of material costs. And because there are no visually-dead spots in the films’ construction, they are brighter once applied – both by day and by night. These factors – including the use of an appropriate edge seal where required – are also part of the police specification."
The trials have been an unqualified success. Scott Horne concludes, "The fleet managers of both police authorities loved the end results, both visually and in terms of the financial savings they represent. Both authorities have both now switched their material specification to Avery Dennison."
Lakeside Films and its certified converters are confident that they will benefit from increasing business in the emergency service vehicles service sector as a result of these trials – and have proved beyond doubt that a slow, measured approach to the market can bring real benefits.
Full details of Avery Dennison traffic and safety products are available via the website, www.reflectives.averydennison.com; from www.lakesidefilms.co.uk, and from Avery Dennison distributors throughout Europe.
