Since the development of an active version of his intelligent mains panel meant a major redesign of the product, Peter took the opportunity to explore alternative manufacturing facilities. He negotiated for production to be subcontracted to a British firm which arranged for manufacturing to be undertaken in China, thereby reducing the manufacturing cost by about one third, together with a commensurate improvement in product quality. At the same time Peter set about marketing the new active version of his intelligent mains panel. An order from Powergen for 20000 items quickly showed the potential of the improved product. The original passive version had only achieved sales of 5000 during the period of slightly less than a year that it was on the market. Significant orders from major electrical retailers such as Maplin, Lakelands, PC World and even B & Q soon followed. When the active version went on the market in October 2003 it was soon selling at an average rate of 3000 items a month, evidence if such were needed that the intelligent mains panel was a successful innovation. Not that Peter. Robertson felt innovation had to stop there. He was soon planning an improved version that would combine his patented intelligent switching system with additional features such as surge protection, full range calibration and split phone and modem outputs. He was even beginning to explore a version for the US market that would work with power supplies ranging from 100 to 250 volts, market the intelligent mains panel a product capable of taking on global markets.