Ring Celebrate 36 Years

In 1974 Ring Automotive was established. 36 years on and after a successful management buyout Ring Automotive now stands the market leader in the supply of vehicle lighting and auto electrical car accessories.
In this time Ring Automotive has developed a good relationship with CAAR and its members. This is in part due to unique products such as the XenonMax, Air Compressors and SmartChargers, but it is also down to individual personnel. While many aftermarket companies have cut back their sales force, Ring Automotive provide each CAAR member with its own dedicated Areas Sales Manager and Internal Sales Partner from the Customer Service Team. CAAR members have a name they know when they call and the one point of contact creates a mutually beneficial relationship. CAAR members can be informed of availability, pricing, delivery times and whether or not there is a promotion. CAAR members also have the option of placing orders by fax, email and edi. With 96% availability and 98% first pick time accuracy CAAR members can rely on the service from Ring Automotive.
From its early beginnings as a supplier of vehicle bulbs, Ring Automotive was able to provide an alternative offering to the market in product, price, service and supply.
Leaders In Lighting
To many motorists the name Ring Automotive is synonymous with bulbs, but there is a lot more to vehicle lighting than a standard replacement bulb. Today Ring Automotive leads the aftermarket with the innovation of the XenonMax, the first street legal bulb to put up to 100% more light on the road.
Last year demand for the XenonMax range of bulbs out stripped supply. The success was a combination of an innovative product that Ring Automotive knew the market wanted, supported with above the line advertising and marketing, giving retailers the maximum opportunity to trade up.
Understanding that the competition would respond, Ring Automotive has worked hard to provide even more support to CAAR members. Caroline Harding Ring Automotive’s Associate Marketing Director, says “this Autumn sees the launch of a new lighting profitability centre (LPC). The LPC is a 1m wide x 2m high stand, with clear trade up routes for performance halogen bulbs, long life halogen bulbs and premium halogen bulbs. The key difference is that the LPC also comes with an interactive display that informs and demonstrates the benefits of the XenonMax bulb.” Caroline States “We worked really hard to provide a clear, concise easy to understand message as to why motorists should upgrade to XenonMax. The film on the display shows the contrast in light out put from a standard bulb and equivalent XenonMax bulb. This will appeal to the executive long distance driver or a mother driving her family, looking to make driving easier and safer after dark.
Focus has not just been given to the XenonMax bulbs. Ring Automotive has also redesigned its standard blister bulb packaging. The packaging has been designed to ensure Long life, Premium and Rapid Response bulbs all fit into a consistent look, presenting customers with clear options. Caroline Harding says “to aid self selection, we have simplified the information presented so that motorists who are unfamiliar with bulbs can understand what bulb they require. This should remove confusion and doubt in the mind of motorists, but at the same time make retailers such as CAAR members seem more accessible.
New SmartCharge+ Range
New product development is not exclusive to lighting. Powering is Ring Automotive’s range of products designed to provide portable power for all travel requirements, within and around vehicles. Powering has expanded to include SmartChargers, inverters, powerpacks and multi-sockets.
This autumn sees Ring Automotive’s launch its new range of SmartCharge+ battery charges. These have been designed to prolong the life of a battery, but also prevent unnecessary maintenance or breakdown costs.
SmartCharge+ is the Ultimate Health Care for Batteries.
The SmartCharge+ range of battery chargers with their 7 stage charging cycle is a hassle free, comprehensive tool designed to diagnose, recondition and service vehicle batteries.
The Ring Automotive SmartCharge+ range is easy and intuitive to use, simply plug into the mains and connect to the battery. The SmartCharge+ will do the rest. It will test a battery and establish what action is needed.
Before charging, the SmartCharge+ range will automatically, if needed, go into a desulphation mode. If further charging is required the chargers will automatically go into a recondition stage to recover deeply discharged batteries.
For motorists the SmartCharge+ reduces the cost of battery replacement and the claims for the battery warranty.
Motorists will also see an improvement in battery performance to deal with the constant drain from the ever increasing on board electronic equipment and in-car gadgets.
With winter just around the corner, the cold temperatures often make motorists notice the state of their battery as more energy is needed to start a vehicle. The SmartCharge+ range of battery chargers is the ideal tool to keep motorist battery fully charged and you on the road this winter season.
Committed To Quality
In 1974, when Ring entered the market, it set out to differentiate itself from the competition, through a commitment to quality.
Today Ring Automotive has a dedicated Quality Assurance testing laboratory where it puts all new products and potential rival products through gruelling test programmes. This commitment to quality continues with the recent installation of a purpose built lighting laboratory. The new £100,000 facility is equipped with the latest light imaging photometer.
Where a traditional goniophotometer can only measure the light intensity and colour from the lamp one direction at a time, the new ProMetric photometer can measure millions of angles simultaneously. Localised light and colour difference can easily be detected. “From this incredible tool and the powerful supporting software not only can we analyse the results to ensure strict compliance to legal regulations, but also when developing new products, we have accurate information to make improvements,” explains Nick Cameron, Marketing and Technical Director at Ring Automotive.
“The software also provides a ‘birds eye’ view of the on road beam pattern, which makes it easy to visualise the performance difference between lamps, to both the engineer and user alike.”
Nick Cameron explains “the technology was developed in partnership with our supplier putting Ring Automotive at the forefront of automotive lighting technology.”
The light tunnel laboratory continues to move the company forward. It allows Ring Automotive to give aftermarket customers, access to the innovative technologies of tomorrow, way ahead of the competition.
“We are obviously proud of our new laboratory that we have been inviting customers to visit and see the new facility first hand. We welcome CAAR members to visit, so we can explain the work we are doing and what benefits they can expect to see themselves.” says Cameron.
Award Winning Products
This commitment to quality has resulted in Ring Automotive winning numerous products awards across its wide product range. Already in 2010, Ring Automotive has won 13 product awards out of a total 53 product awards.
It can be a challenge persuading consumers to buy a more sophisticated, well engineered product when cheaper alternatives do a seemingly similar job. This is where Ring Automotive’s complete product offering of excellent packaging, cataloguing, field training, and product awards comes into play. It helps retailers demonstrate the benefits of the more advanced Ring Automotive products and increase profits. It also give consumers confidence in the Ring Automotive product range and brand.