The signmaking firm is riding high at the moment, working on big deals for corporate giants such as Tesco and McDonald’s, writes Martha Kearns.
The era of the neon advertising sign could be coming to an end in Ireland as LED (light-emitting diodes) become a viable alternative. Signmaker Gaelite has just replaced all of Tesco’s neon store signs with LED, and is also in the early stages of the process for Maxol and McDonald’s.
‘‘The carbon savings are pretty dramatic. We basically sat down and calculated what it would mean based on trips to New York. In a given year, Tesco will have saved 5,000 trips to New York in terms of carbon emissions,” said Finbarr Clarkson, Gaelite managing director.
The company, which introduced neon into the Irish market in 1933, stopped manufacturing neon last year.
Until very recently, LED was prohibitively expensive, and was not as effective as neon. ‘‘People were not going to accept putting in a more expensive solution that was not as good as neon,” said Clarkson.
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