Ayrton CEO, Christopher Ferrante, joined the French lighting company as it celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2017. Despite the pandemic, business looks set to quite buoyant for its 20th anniversary next year. Ferrante spoke to Live Design about the company's approach during the pandemic and his thoughts on the industry in recovery.
Live Design: Ayrton has just had its second-best month ever for orders. Why now?
Christopher Ferrante: I think there is an element of pent-up demand and certain territories starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Some of it, though, is simply coincidence--the coming together of fixed install orders on which we have been working for a while. What is probably most exciting about the result in June is that much of it already has homes-- i.e. it is not going to bloat distributor’s inventory. Of course, none of this is possible without the continued overarching support of our partners. We cannot do this without them.
LD: Which areas of your market were most and least affected by the pandemic?
CF: Certainly concert touring [was hard hit], which is our most active market, usually. Luckily, the broad product line we have has allowed us to successfully position certain items into TV, motion picture production, theatre and other permanent installations which have kept us going over the last year to 18 months.
LD: Did this cause a shift in the type of Ayrton products that are most in demand?
CF: Not really. Diablo has been a mainstay and continues to be so. The IP65 range of products have also done very well and we are expecting them to be very, very successful as we start to see the return of live events. So much so that we have just launched Perseo Beam, which rather incredibly goes from 2 degrees all the way to 42 (a 21 times zoom!)
LD: Has there been any slow down at all in R&D, or did that remain a central focus of the company?
CF: We were very clear back in April of 2020 that with all the tough decisions we would have to make, we would not do anything to damage the organization. There is nothing worse than making certain savings which, while providing immediate relief, only cause long-term harm. Therefore we committed to retaining our entire team (and have in fact grown the team recently and will do so again in September). We also committed to push on with all our engineering projects. Right now we have three prototypes and another on the way in various stages of review, as well as two products close to launch and the Perseo Beam we have just launched. This does not take into account any of the mid- to long-term projects we have, or the research projects which are constantly ongoing. I say this quite a bit, engineering/R&D is our life blood. That we have found a way to maintain our pre-pandemic levels of investment is superb and really cements our position going forward. It is of course true that we did slow down product releases over the last 18 months, but this should certainly not be interpreted as a slow down in product development. I should point out that the govt assistance program in the EU have certainly been helpful and much appreciated. While not solving all our challenges (nor should they) they have certainly helped us navigate the past 18 months.
LD: Are there any lessons to be learned from the pandemic? For example, making everything IP65/66 rated in anticipation of Covid-safe outdoor events?
CF: I think the IP65/66 shift was already underway before and our increasing portfolio in this area is not pandemic driven. Having said that, it certainly helps to have them as one result of the pandemic may well be more outdoor shows. Our focus when it comes to IP 65/66 units is to ensure that they remain light and small enough to be used indoors as well as outdoors. The days when an IP65/66 unit had to be large, heavy and have no output are long gone (which is a good thing!!).
Outside of product trends there are lots of lessons learned from the pandemic. I am sure the last 18 months has been, on some levels, the most incredible learning experience. We have all dealt with things none of us had ever planned for, expected or experienced- and we are still here to tell the tale. However, if there is one thing which has stood out from my perspective, it is how important it has been to keep my colleagues together, to remain positive in pretty dark times, and how important it is to focus on the future more than the now. We would all prefer to end up in a more rosy future!
LD: Inventory management is going to be the very difficult because of part shortages. What would be your advice for purchasers in the future?
CF: Yes, this is currently what keeps me up at night. I would say forecasting is key. All of us (not just Ayrton) need our partners to feed more data back to us, enabling us to make better production decisions. We can and do (of course) look into our crystal ball and guess, but the more people guessing along with us the better. We are also putting in place purchasing tactics to get us through the immediate challenge. Thankfully, the delays we are seeing are not as extreme as they could be, but it will take at least eight to 12 months for the global supply chain to right itself (from what we can tell at this point in time).
LD: How do you think the industry as a whole will change because of the pandemic?
CF: I think the most obvious change is going to be people-based. People leaving the industry and not returning. It is hard to quantify how much of an impact this is going to have, but losing talented and motivated people from our industry can never be a good thing. I also think we will see further consolidation occurring, perhaps not as aggressively in the manufacturing segment as in the rental one, but it is often a reaction to any major economic/industrial shock, and this has been quite the shock.
At the end of the day, we are resilient and there is certainly a future. The need for entertainment, live and in person, is really quite central to most of our lives. As the reopening gathers pace (bearing in mind there are still some road bumps) we will see much more exciting times ahead.