About Us

The Lightfoot story began on 1st June 1981. Ralph Lightfoot formed the business from the garage of his family home near Bishop Auckland. He had one goal and that was to deliver a customer-driven service.

Today we are located in the heart of Bishop Auckland with a team of over 20, we still pride ourselves in making our customers our priority.

Ralph retired in 2001, handing over the reins to sons Steven and Paul and, latterly, Steve and his wife Sharon. Steve has worked within the business since 1985 after starting as an apprentice. The same has happened with most of our electrical engineers, some of whom the company has employed for more than 20 years.

Our engineers work throughout the North East on a daily business from Northumberland to North Yorkshire and across to areas such as Carlisle.

Their knowledge of the job and passion for customer service means we have built some long lasting relationships with our clients, some of which dating back to the birth of the company.

Every problem for our clients is important to us however large or small.

The majority of our colleagues started their careers with us as apprentices, including managing director, Steve Lightfoot. So, when we say we guarantee employment to every apprentice that completes their training, we really mean it.

We are extremely passionate about the North East and it is important to us we train local people and offer them full-time employment at the end of their apprenticeship.

It is our belief everyone should have the opportunity to access training schemes and is why we accept people of all ages. You can’t put an age limit on passion and determination!

Our apprentices come to us via New College Durham and we always have two at any given time, training them for four years.

It takes time and a vast amount of dedication from both the apprentices and company to reach a level of exceptional knowledge and skill, this is why we encourage and support our apprentices to continue learning throughout their careers.

When our apprentices qualify, training doesn’t end there. In fact, it is just the beginning of their learning experience. Our team are constantly honing their craft, to keep up with new developments in the industry. It is not uncommon for members of the team who have been with us for 30+ years to be talking about what course they are planning on doing next!

Culture is all about respecting our customers and our staff.

Everything we do is tailored to make life easier for you. We know that calling out an electrician isn’t something you want to do, so our aim is to make the experience as easy and pain-free as possible.

We 100% guarantee you will never ring us and have to leave a voicemail, let alone not hear back. We are on hand 24/7 to take your call and will get one of our twenty- strong team to you the same day – or immediately, in the case of an emergency.

A great deal of time goes in to handpicking our team. Our electricians not only have determination and can-do attitudes, they are also people we genuinely want to work with and we know you would feel comfortable having them in your home or workplace.

Our aim is to deliver the ‘wow’ factor. We pride ourselves on taking time to get to know customers and providing a service they would happily recommend to friends and family. Not because we are sales driven, but because it is the true sign we are providing exceptional service.