This year Le Maitre is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Since it was established back in 1977 by Rick Wilson and Harold Berlinski, and joined three years later by Karen Cornacchia, the company has gone from strength to strength to become a global leader in its field of pyrotechnics and special effects.
In those earliest days Le Maitre was producing mirror balls, as well as the Pea Souper dry ice machine, the first products in its renowned PyroFlash range and the two-way controller, products that are all still going strong today. The company quickly grew and in 1980 the pyrotechnics factory in Peterborough was officially opened.
Fast forward 40 years and today the product range has grown to include over 1,500 state-of- the-art products. PyroFlash was joined by the ProStage II range, and more recently the Virtually Smokeless products with their extremely intense colours. All products have always been manufactured in the UK, all in full compliance with industry regulations.
As Rick said: “We’re delighted to be celebrating our 40th year in business and although it’s nice to take stock and look back at what we’ve achieved we’re excited about what’s still to come. We are constantly striving for better, cleaner products that allow spectators and audiences across the world to see our effects at their very best, and we have some exciting developments with large scale pyrotechnics later this year. To simplify things for users we have also added smart controls to our most popular smoke and haze machines, enabling the user to set-up, control and diagnose errors quickly and easily from their mobile phone or tablet.”
Le Maitre Events, spearheaded by Karen Cornacchia, continues to thrive, designing, supplying and firing pyro and effects for numerous tours, festivals, stage shows, TV and film productions and corporate events across the UK and Europe.
“All in all, things are looking good for the future of Le Maitre,” said Karen. “We have an established international distributor network, an outstanding presence in the European market, and we have a strong team of dedicated staff, many of whom have been with us for over 25 years. The American market continues to expand through Le Maitre USA, LLC and we are just starting to manufacture products in a new site in Missouri. We are all looking forward to many more exciting times ahead.”
