Interview

STAYING ON TOP IN AN UNSETTLED ECONOMY

Carly Wills talks to Zumtobel Group UK & Ireland’s new Managing Director, Paul Kilburn, about his previous roles and his plans for the future of the company.

CW: Tell us about yourself and how you got into the sector.

PK: I am 48 years old and live in Stratford-Upon-Avon with my wife and two children. I’ve been with my wife for 30 years, and we are proud parents of two boys aged 21 and 18. Born in Birmingham, where I lived until moving to the Brighton area, aged 30, where I joined the Volution Group (in 2004), I feel privileged to lead a happy life.

I joined the sector straight from school in 1990 when I started with MEM 500V (now known as Eaton Electrical) on a four-year engineering/commercial apprenticeship.

I worked in every area of the business while attending day release at college where I studied business studies, finance, economics and marketing. At the end of my apprenticeship, I took on the full-time role of Applications Engineer for miniature circuit breaker systems. I continued my studies, attaining my City & Guilds in Electrical Installation.

I later joined MEM’s largest customer in 1995 – the Distributor – Newey & Eyre, where I was responsible for the Lighting Fixtures and Lamps product group, for five years. This is where I had my first experience with the lighting industry. My largest supplier was Thorn Lighting. I finished my time at Newey & Eyre as Head of Product Management which was a fantastic learning experience in a great business.

After nine years with Newey & Eyre, I moved back into the manufacturing sector as the Commercial Director of Vent-Axia, a manufacturer of ventilation products, and part of Volution Group.

For the last 18 years I have held board leadership roles, including during the acquisition of the Group as part of an MBO in 2012 and the later flotation on the London Stock Exchange in 2014. I held the Managing Director role for one of the group brands for seven years, culminating in my last role as the Managing Director for the entire Volution Group in the UK & Ireland.

CW: For those who may not know, can you give us an overview of the work that Zumtobel Group does?

PK: The Zumtobel Group offers innovative, high-quality energy efficient lighting solutions, controls and components, and associated services for our customers worldwide.

Our strong brands cover nearly the entire value chain in lighting. Our lighting business involves two well-known brands, Thorn Lighting and Zumtobel Lighting, offering an unrivalled lighting solution to contractors, distributors and projects in the UK. The Group is also self-sufficient in developing controls and technology through our Tridonic brand.

Our core expert application areas include indoor lighting; specifically office, education, retail, health and care, and art and culture. Our expertise in outdoor lighting includes urban areas, street lighting, architecture, and sports facilities.

The Zumtobel Group works to continually improve the quality of its products and processes and optimise cost structures along the entire value chain. With our own production facilities, including a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in the North-East of England and Dornbirn Austria, a competitive global supplier network, we’re known for reliable deliveries and customer-oriented service.

The Zumtobel Group provides solutions that optimise energy use through technology, control and IoT (Internet of Things) data collection. This underpins our sustainable approach to product development, manufacture and distribution of our products.

Over the decades, a unique corporate culture has evolved at our Group and is distilled into our three core values: Passion, Performance, and Partnership. These three values shape our thoughts and actions. They are the driving force behind the realisation of our vision and mission.

CW: Tell us about your new role and what drew you to it – what are you responsible for, and what does the normal working day consist of?

PK: As Managing Director for Zumtobel Group UK & Ireland, I am responsible for the commercial development of the business.

I wanted to work in a company whose products and activities contribute positively to some of the world’s largest social and environmental challenges and where there is great scope for innovation to meet these important needs. I see the lighting industry as having a highly influential role in contributing to the conservation of energy, health and wellbeing, and safety of environments.

I am lucky to have a very varied role, however, a typical working day would include positive engagement with employees and contact with customers – enabling me to stay close and up to date with customer needs, feelings, attitudes and industry developments.

CW: As you are new to the role, what excites you about the challenges ahead?

PK: There are several exciting challenges. We have an opportunity to take stock and ensure clarity on our vision for the future. This includes involving our employees in the journey and establishing a clear purpose for the business that all employees can relate to and that helps drive us collectively towards our goals and objectives.

Paul Kilburn

There is a clear need to ensure our markets are fully aware of the technology available to optimise lighting and energy efficiency. We want to be at the forefront of education and training in the sector and develop tools that make it quick and easy for our customers to make the right product and technology choices.

We have new products to launch and several markets where we plan to become more active. This will be exciting for our manufacturing, engineering, sales and marketing teams.

Digitisation in how we run our business and interact with our customers is at the forefront of our thinking, and several investments are already in hand. Data and intelligence will help us improve our sales effectiveness and the support we need to offer our customers.

Ensuring legislation continues to promote the use of the most efficient and effective lighting solutions is incredibly important, and we plan to lead within the trade associations we are a member of. A good example is the phasing out of T5/T8 fluorescent lamps in 2023 and the opportunity this provides contractors to target refurbishment opportunities with their customers, particularly at a time when the cost of energy is so high, and the payback period is significantly reduced.

CW: What is the biggest impact COVID-19 has had on the industry?

PK: This is hard to pin to one factor. I see three fundamental areas of significant impact:

The shift to working remotely and work-from-home culture. This has resulted in new means of communication and employee engagement. It has affected the roles of external salespeople, with many physical meetings being replaced by virtual “Energy efficiency will continue to be the bedrock of future change. However, I see the focus moving towards IoT technology that will build instantaneous controllability to underpin the core technology”

meetings as their customers spend less time in offices. The remote culture is here to stay, and we must continue to find the best ways to accommodate and adapt our KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) accordingly.

The health and wellbeing of staff have brought work/life balance to the forefront. We have seen an evolution of skills that managers and HR professionals have needed to develop to be more aware of the mental health strains on staff and support mechanisms businesses have introduced to help employees with challenges.

Clearly, as the industry has bounced back from the economic depths of COVID-19, the strain on material availability, material costs, logistics, and the availability/cost of labour has been a massive challenge for the industry. This has driven more detailed considerations on where materials are made and where else they can be sourced. Combined with the industry’s sustainable and circular economy focus, it will be helpful to those who invest in UK manufacturing in the future. This, however, must be aligned with a real focus on attracting workers to the sector through diverse engagement, education, training and opportunities to develop.

CW: Coming from an electrical background, aside from COVID-19, what have been the biggest changes across the industry in recent times? What will be the biggest changes in the future?

PK: Across the electrical industry, various changes to legislation have driven the use of more energy efficient products and innovations, such as building regulations and the eco-design directive.

Energy efficiency will continue to be the bedrock of future change. However, I see the focus moving towards IoT technology that will build instantaneous controllability to underpin the core technology. IoT will also lead to more detailed access to data that will help shape energy efficiency and other aspects of building use. Circular economy factors such as materials used to manufacture fittings, where fittings are manufactured, and recyclability will also shape the industry’s future.

CW: What is your vision for the next six months?

PK: Lots of learning relating to the industry, products and technologies, lots of relationships to be built internally and externally, strong employee engagement, achieving great clarity on our business purpose and the development of the initiatives, in conjunction with our staff, that will support our ambitions and longer-term vision. All this while staying on top of the more immediate challenges the business may face in the unsettled economy.

CW: From what you have seen so far, what are the most exciting products or technologies coming to the market?

PK: Without a doubt, controls, wired networked solutions, IoT, intelligence and data solutions.

CW: What are your interests away from work?

PK: Away from work I enjoy various forms of fitness, from running, tennis and spin to my main passion, football. Playing with my over 35’s team, watching my son or watching my team – Birmingham City. I also enjoy travelling, spending time with friends and eating out.

Durham Cathedral lit by Thorn Lighting