0113 496 0140 Mon to Sat 8am–6pm, Sun 10am–4pm
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Where it started

A Leeds warehouse, a reel of cable and a stubborn idea

In 1989, Gordon Hainsworth was an electrician turned wholesaler, running a trade counter off Kirkstall Road. His trade customers knew exactly what they wanted. The public, wandering in for “a light for over the table”, clearly didn’t, and a boxed fitting on a shelf did nothing to help them decide.

So one weekend Gordon wired a corner of the warehouse into a mock dining room: one table, eight pendants above it, one bank of switches. Customers could stand there and flick between them. It felt almost too simple, but sales of those eight pendants went up fivefold in a month. People started driving over from the other side of Leeds because, as they kept saying, “you can actually see them on.”

That corner became a floor. The floor became a showroom. The showroom became three. The rule from that first weekend still holds today: if we sell it, you can see it working.

The Luxwell team working together around a table
1989founded in Leeds
The journey

From one wired-up corner to three showrooms

1989

The dining room experiment

Gordon Hainsworth wires eight pendants over one table at the Kirkstall Road trade counter. The idea of seeing a light switched on before you buy it is born.

1994

Leeds becomes a proper showroom

The warehouse floor is rebuilt as full room sets: kitchen, lounge and bathroom. We believe it was a first for an electrical retailer in the UK.

1998

Sheffield opens

Our second showroom opens at Parkway Point, bringing the room-set format to South Yorkshire and doubling the trade counter operation.

2009

Nottingham joins the family

Showroom number three opens on Castle Boulevard, taking Luxwell across the Yorkshire border for the first time.

2017

The Smart Home Labs

Every showroom gains a working smart home wall, with lighting scenes, heating, locks and cameras you can walk up to and try.

2022

EV demo bays switched on

Real chargepoints on real walls, so you can handle the cables and try the apps before an installer ever visits your driveway.

Today

Second generation, same rule

Now run by Gordon’s son Robert, Luxwell stocks over 12,000 products across three showrooms, and every one of them is wired to work.

A Luxwell-approved engineer beside an electrical installation
How we work

Plenty of retailers sell boxes. We’d rather solve rooms.

Most of what goes wrong with buying electrical goods comes from treating them like any other product. A light isn’t a toaster. It changes how a room feels, and it’s wired into your house. So we hold ourselves to a few standards a box-shifter never would:

  • Honest advice first. Our floor staff aren’t on commission. If the £40 fitting suits your room better than the £400 one, we’ll tell you.
  • Qualified people on the floor. Every showroom has time-served electricians and trained lighting designers on shift, seven days a week.
  • Nothing leaves unfitted that shouldn’t. If a product legally needs professional installation, we arrange it rather than waving it out the door.
  • Still family-owned. No private equity, no quarterly targets pushing us to sell you things you don’t need.
The people

The faces you’ll actually meet

Four of the ninety-odd people who keep the lights on across Leeds, Sheffield and Nottingham.

Robert Hainsworth, Managing Director
Robert HainsworthManaging Director, Gordon’s lad
Dani Fletcher, Head of Showrooms
Dani FletcherHead of Showrooms & Lighting Design
Marcus Tan, Smart Home Lead
Marcus TanSmart Home & EV Lead
Erin Walsh, Trade Accounts Manager
Erin WalshTrade Accounts Manager
Come and say hello

The best way to understand Luxwell is to stand in it

Words on a website only get you so far. Come and flick some switches, dim a few room sets and quiz the team. The kettle’s always on at all three showrooms.

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