DEMM Engineering & Manufacturing
‘World class’ marine beacons now available online
The same technology used to guide giant ships through the Panama Canal is now available to New Zealand ports, marinas and fish farms via the internet. Vega Industries Ltd, based in Porirua, has launched an online shop providing a convenient way to purchase high-performing LED beacons and spare parts.
“The online shop makes these products available in a new way,” says Marketing Manager Nina Ive. “Our most popular beacons with ranges of one to five nautical miles are now ready for next day dispatch anywhere in New Zealand.” These beacons have traditionally been sold through channel partners around the world.
CEO Arjen Maarleveld said the launch of the online shop was the culmination of a lot of hard work to expand Vega’s presence in the high-volume end of the market. “The team has put a lot of effort into transferring knowledge and skills from our range of high performance, customised product to these more standardised products.”
Vega trialled the online concept with its larger customers in a private portal-style web shop, demonstrating that the concept is attractive these buyers and works well. The new open, public web shop was a natural next step. “This online shop is only for New Zealand customers at the moment, we are discussing with our channel partners how we can expand the concept into other countries,” says Maarleveld.
Vega has a global reputation for precision sector lights, light house beacons, and other high-end navigation signals used by customers like the Panama Canal Authority, the US Coast Guard, Ports of Auckland and Maritime New Zealand. The reliability and efficiency of these long-range lights is also part of Vega’s shorter range beacons and has been extensively used by clients such as the US Coast Guard.