Monday Interview: Henry Bisson, marketing manager at Ring Automotive

The marketing manager of Leeds-based Ring Automotive said the company can look forward to exciting new avenues for expansion after it was acquired by OSRAM, a world leader in the supply of vehicle lighting technology.

Henry Bisson graduated from Leeds University in 2002 with a BA (Hons) in International Studies, then took a graduate placement with Francis Ward in Bradford as a marketing assistant.

He joined Ring in 2007 as a marketing executive. He has worked at the Gelderd Road business for 13 years, progressing to become marketing manager.

Bisson explained that following detailed discussions which first began in 2018, Ring was acquired by OSRAM in May of this year.

Ring, which employs 160 people mostly based in Leeds, also provides other products to the aftercare market, including tyre and battery care systems. Bisson said the acquisition by OSRAM was hugely important for Ring, which will continue to operate under its own name, with OSRAM as the premium brand.

“From a UK point of view this creates a stronger, more in-depth product profile that we can go to the wider market with,” he added.

“We now have access to OSRAM’s products for our customers and we can go up against the more premium brands. And it also means OSRAM has access to our own non-lighting products – something which they’ve traditionally not been involved in before.

“Globally the opportunities for us are massive, because OSRAM has sales functions in pretty much every continent.

“Sales channels will be more receptive to us due to the OSRAM partnership, so we’ll be able to grow even faster that was originally forecast. We’ll have greater reach across Europe.”

Bisson said prior to the acquisition Ring had its own, small international sales team of four or five people focusing on European markets. His firm will now be able to also make use of OSRAM’s much larger sales team of 60 to 70 people.

He stressed that even more OSRAM’s involvement, Ring had been managing impressive growth. He said it had a turnover of £17m when he joined the company, but now turns over £43m.

“We’ve been doing very well with automotive-based customers but additionally we’ve diversified into non automotive retailers, including Amazon, Screwfix and Argos,” he said.

Bisson noted potential challenges ahead include the “quirks and idiosyncrasies” of various international territories, the need to ensure Ring’s products are relevant to these locations and contending with the language barrier.

And he said the business must also take into account a contracting market and tougher competition as well as transformations caused by the industry’s response to environmental concerns, a reduction in vehicle ownership due to high insurance costs and the advent of the driverless car.

“We’re seeing the bigger brands entering the electric vehicle market which will be a game-changer, as this will involve different vehicle components and different maintenance requirements,” he said.

However, he noted there was still plenty of room for optimism, so long as the business remains nimble and capable of reacting quickly to change.