Ayrton Open Day

Prior to the official launch of two new fixtures at PLASA London, Ayrton invites members of the press to take a look around its Paris base, guided by CEO, Christopher Ferrante. TPi reports…

It’s been more than two years since news came through of Ayrton’s acquisition by Chinese Lighting manufacturer, Golden Sea. Since then, the company has seen some large developments in both its product line and European staff base. With fixtures such as the Khamsin-S making appearances on a selection of tour riders including Hugh Jackman, Take That and Shawn Mendes, it’s an exciting time for the lighting company. Greeting TPi and other members of the press at Ayrton’s French base, just South of Paris, was CEO Christopher Agius Ferrante, who discussed what lay in store for the company.

“Following Golden Sea’s acquisition back in January 2017, several strategic decisions were made,” began Ferrante, standing outside the Ayrton facility, which opened officially in March last year. “One of these key decisions was that the company should remain in Paris. This facility is only down the road from our original office.” This bigger space – which includes a lobby, more office space, a warehouse, meeting rooms and a permanent 220 sq m showroom – was specified to make way for the investment in a new staff base. The company has grown from six in-house employees to

23 employees in two-and-a-half years. “Our vision was clear,” stated the CEO. “Retain the original team, drive new investments, move into a new building, add team members, drive a shift in product focus, all while never losing sight of Ayrton’s DNA – the incredible innovation and attention to detail driven by our founder and CTO, Yvan Peard.”

Ferrante spoke candidly about Ayrton’s past that had its own place in the market. “Historically, Ayrton produced products that were incredibly niche, specialist and ahead of their time,” he began. “They were very cool and found themselves on some of the largest shows in the world, but due to their nature, they had shorter lifecycles than Ayrton may have liked.

“Since 2017 we have shifted our focus to more ‘bread and butter’ products. This brings its own challenges such as competition, but it’s also a much larger market for us to work in.

“We also have an incredibly clear roadmap, called Multi 21. It outlines our development cycle up until the end of 2021, ensuring clarity among our partners and is backed by a clear strategy where we will not replace any of our existing product in the roadmap. In a world where product comes and goes, almost without thought, we are keen to ensure our partners get the best utilisation and ROI on their investments with us.”

And this move to a bigger market has clearly been a good one – the CEO stated proudly that Ayrton doubled its business last year and that 2019 is seeing similarly aggressive levels of growth.

Walking around the various sectors of the building, from the warehouse, repairs department to the office space upstairs, Ferrante described the framework of the company.

“What’s important to remember is that this base is not for manufacturing – it’s distribution,” he began. “Even though we develop new products from here, we do not build any of the fixtures.” In fact, since the acquisition, the CEO explained that 75% of the Ayrton stock is shipped directly from China, cutting out the need for products to be sent to France and then on to another destination. “The quality control taking place in China is incredibly advanced, allowing us to drive efficiencies we would otherwise miss. We carry a selection of stock for certain European clients who would rather not deal with international shipping but, on the whole, most of it is sent out from China.”

What became clear was that the Paris base was very much a site for research and development, along with all the customer-facing elements of the operation. “As part of our programme of continuous improvement, we will be installing, in February 2020, a new automated system to store, manage and pick spare parts,” Ferrante explained. “In the past year, the company has also increased the service department from two to five staff, with the aims of expanding its service centre and providing training, sales support and its overall ability to support its global network of clients.”

Moving on, the CEO spoke of some of the latest innovations that have happened at the company, with the release of fixtures including the Ghibli, Khamsin-S and Bora-S. “The process for each new fixture begins here in France, where Yvan and his team develop the concepts surrounding a product,” he explained.

“We then leverage the incredible team of discipline specialists at Golden Sea, optical engineers, a thermal engineers, mechanical engineers, software developers and industrial design engineers to bring the product to life. Once created, we then receive a number of prototypes, which we

give the green light to or work on with the engineering office to improve the product. We also conduct our own long-term quality control alongside the tests that take place at the factory.”

According to the CEO, one of the main driving forces behind the latest line of fixtures have been three elements: smaller, lighter and brighter. “Or, in a nutshell, efficiency!” he stated, turning the group’s attention to the inner workings of the Khamsin-S. “To see the innovation that is taking place, you really need to look inside the fixtures. For example, one of the ways we were able to keep the weight and size of the Khamsin down was thanks to the innovative cooling system, (half the size of Ghibli’s even though the fixture is delivering almost twice as much output), which is used for cooling both the LED engine and the LED drivers.”

Concluding the tour, we visited the company’s demo room to see some products that, in a few days, were to be showcased at PLASA London – namely the Perseo and Huracán-X.

Perseo is Ayrton’s first multi-function, compact, powerful, IP65-rated fixture developed for intensive outdoor use. With features such as 100% framing shutters, the Perseo produces 27,000lm from its 500W LED source with a fully weatherproof housing, with a new water-resistant menu navigation system.

The Huracán-X profile light was also on display. This particular fixture has been created to deliver exceptional light output along with a formidable new graphical tool possessing a wealth of features and an entirely new complex colour mixing system. But it was its new advanced colour mixing system (patent pending), which Ferrante was keen to outline to the group. With a CMY, CTO, CTP, CTB subtractive system, LDs are given complete control over the colour palette.

With the demo concluded, the day’s event concluded with a rooftop drinks reception in the centre of Paris attended by Ayrton’s global distribution network. With its wide-ranging product range now on offer, and with an extensive distribution network, Ayrton seems set to continue its notable growth and continue to be featured on more touring riders.

TPi

Photos: Ayrton

www.ayrton.eu