The name ‘Parvalux’ derives from the latin ‘parvulus’ and ‘lux’ and means ‘young light’, alluding to the hopes that founder Leslie J. Clark had for the Romford-based business where he first began selling motor rewinds in 1947.
After relocating to Bournemouth in 1957, the company moved from simply re-winding motors to designing and manufacturing complete gear-motor units for industrial applications.
With ‘LJ’ at the helm Parvalux prospered, and for another forty years continued to expand its product offer to cover a huge range of DC and AC electric motors and gearboxes, enabling the business to sell into a diverse range of markets and applications ― all over the world.
Then in 2003, having run the company almost single-handedly for 55 years, LJ Clark passed away; leaving grandson, Steven Clark, to take over as Chief Executive.
Fending off the pressures of globalisation Steven Clark continued to push the business forward and in 2008 acquired rival firm and DC motor application specialist EMD Drives Systems of Halstead, thereby creating the UK’s largest privately-owned manufacturer of sub 1kW electric motors and gearboxes.
Until that time EMD had shared a similar history to Parvalux, initially winning recognition in the 1960s as volume AC motor supplier to household names such as Qualcast and Hotpoint, but then moved exclusively into DC products by the 1980s where they would compete directly with Parvalux until the businesses merged some 30 years later.
Today Parvalux remains a privately owned and run business with distributors in 21 countries and a turnover of GBP15m+.
For more information on the propietors of Parvalux and EMD please visit The Clark Group website. |
