An unassuming white building sets nestled next to Christopher ball fields.
From the outside, one would never suspect what goes on inside. Owner and president Ronnie Brown said Blachere Illumination has been in operation in Christopher since 2004.
"The history of the company goes back more than 40 years," Brown said. "I was a manufacturing representative in the United Kingdom for a similar business that specialized in Christmas displays, earning 5-percent commission on festoon harnesses that I sold. I sold directly to the clients. That was 1994. I founded Blachere in 1996. Blachere started a Christmas light company in Apt in Provence, France that specialized in light displays."
Brown said he ventured to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2003 to see if there was interest in the products.
"I had such a good response that I decided to continue. I attended fairs in New York and was approached to become a distributor. The man who owned the building in Christopher offered me space in the back rent-free for the first year. The building is centrally located, and I can get my product to most places easily. There are no transportation problems, real estate is fairly cheap and the labor force is here. When he decided to sell the building, I jumped at the chance to buy it."
Headquartered in Apt in Provence, France, Brown said his days are often spent traveling between locations.
"I just attended a global conference in Madrid, Spain and am flying to France for our annual convention on Tuesday," Brown said. "Every day is a school day for me because I am always learning something new. I am always working with the product to see how it goes together. Playing with the product gives me more of an education than anything else does.
His work drew regional attention during the holiday season.
"My girlfriend Debbie Barnes has a Harley-Davidson motorcycle back in the UK and she decided she wanted one to ride here," Brown said. "We went to Black Diamond Harley-Davidson in Marion before Christmas last year. She picked out a bike that she liked. I asked them if they had any decorations they were planning to put up for Christmas and gave them a copy of our catalog.
"They took the catalog to their marketing director and all of us worked together to create what we called the largest Christmas tree in the world atop the Harley-Davidson dealership. The owners said they wanted something that would stop traffic and I think we gave them what they wanted."
Brown described the tree.
"The tree is a 50-foot structure on a pole that is 130 feet tall," Brown said. "We just kept adding more of our own decorations and was told that the tree caused a bit of a stir in Marion. We expect to make the tree grow even larger this year. The owners of Black Diamond have ideas for other holidays as well. They wanted something for Valentine's Day, but it is a bit too close for us to get it done. We expect to have something for them for St. Patrick's Day."
Brown's son Steven Brown works for the company in the UK.
"The raw material comes from China," Brown said. "Five full-time employees and one part-time employee in the Christopher facility work year around to bend the metal and apply lights onto the metal. The metal comes in a length that is cut to the right size and lights are welded to the frame. We also have three-dimensional displays.
"Steven designs the displays in the UK," he said. "He used to tell me that he wanted to sell light bulbs like his dad when he was four or five," he said. "He started working in the warehouse repairing the motifs. Steven was always a bit of a computer nerd and taught him self how to be a designer. I offered him a chance to be a designer for Blachere Illumination when I thought he had learned enough about the technique."
Brown said Blachere Illumination can be found in 11 locations.
"The company serves 40 countries," he said. "I am told that this is the largest Christmas display design company in the world, and that does not include the American market. We have merely scratched the surface in this country."
His work can be found locally, as well as in other states.
"Christopher had a Christmas display of ours last year, as well as Royalton," Brown said. "One of our largest projects was for Walt Disney World in Florida. We designed a castle that measures 190 foot tall. I have been fascinated by Disney World for a long time and have been going there since 1992. Now I know how Neil Armstrong felt when he walked on the moon after seeing our finished product on display.
"We had completed a castle in Paris two years before the one in Disney World," he said. "I put together a time line to create the castle for Disney World. The project was on, then off, then on again. That was August. They wanted it completed by December. I had to come up with the colors to make the display disappear during the daylight hours. The materials were delivered on Sept. 21 and we had until Oct. 18 to finish the project. I showed the artwork to Steven, who created the design, based on the principle of ‘What you See is What you Get.’"
Brown said the nylon netting used in the design was dyed so it would not be visible during the day.
"We used light blue for the roof and beige for the castle walls," he said. "Disney gave us fantastic drawings to work with, and we worked in partnership with Disney designers. We gave them a replica of the castle so they would know how the finished product would look.
"A crew of six people worked for four weeks on the castle," Brown said. "There are 80 pieces of the castle that includes 230,000 LED lights, 200,000 cable ties and 120 circuits. At first we weren't sure what we were doing but everyone got into it by the third week. We assembled the pieces left by truck and finished two days early. The towers illuminate individually when set to music. I took photos of the castle the night of the first performance. Disney still takes photos of people standing in front of the castle. Proceeds from the sale of those photos have already paid for the lighting display."
Brown said he has also created lighting displays for Sea World.
"The lights are fashioned to be a sail on a yacht," he said. "I also created a brilliantly lit butterfly for Dollywood and a project for Waikiki, Hawaii. The displays last a lifetime if they are cared for.
"The light-weight aluminum frames support the LED lights," Brown said. "This is a huge cost saving and they last a long time. They are more robust than incandescent light bulbs. A string of 200 LED light bulbs use less power than two C-7 bulbs. The castle draws 36 amps of power. Two refrigerators burn more power than that."
Blachere Illumination projects can be found in theme parks, shopping centers, casinos, resorts, hotels and cities and villages throughout the world, Brown said.
He said he also makes presentations to groups between trips abroad. For more information, call 724-1500 or visit www.blachere-illumination.us.
