CEO Interview: Nick Russel, Russel Industries
The acquisition of RAM Industries in Wales joins battery pack and management system maker Denchi and contract manufacturer Prima Electronic Services.
The combination is very deliberate and driven by the changes in the industry, particularly electrification and bringing manufacturing back to the UK says Nick Russel. All three companies are now part of Russel Industries with a particular business model.
“我们开始与Denchi开始，因为我的思想过程在我们可以与Denchi一起做的事情，这导致了收购Prima，”罗布斯说。“我们不想接受投资者来确定为企业提供资金的时间尺度，我们一直在寻找其他企业为财务的企业中心，并分享在一组较小的企业中。”
Russel将德语国家的Mittelstand公司作为模范。这些是中型家族企业公司，弥补了德国工业基地的核心，往往在共同努力，并长期看看投资和培训。
“When we found RAM it seemed that it was the right time to rebrand the holding company and the idea going forward is to talk about the Mittelstand focus, not about a long term exit or IPO, finding good people and businesses,” said Russel.
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While this is perhaps similar to the conglomerates of the past such as GEC or Invensys, driven by shareholder returns, there is a very different focus, says Russel.
“当企业集团模式re it went wrong with the later stage of GEC or Invensys, people just got carried away with the cash flow, buying other businesses that didn’t fit. The three businesses we have are aligned around electrification, so there is a common them and there is overlap in technology and customer and skills and capabilities.”
“That’s the other element we want, to attract high calibre people into the individual businesses, and give them a career path across the different companies.”
He is not looking to incubate startups. “With a pure startup the problem is the cash burn so I don’t think we could do something that was a traditional startup, but there are opportunities for an add on for companies scaling up,” he said.
“以某种方式RAM是一个初创公司 - 它只有六个人，挑战是建立那个业务。RAM已经做了什么，证明了它的技术和人们对此感兴趣。
“Where we want to fish for new acquisitions is in this owner-managed market where people have taken a business a far as they can and the business needs the standard business stuff, and primarily in the UK. I think it will be a long time before we would want to look outside, there’s a huge market opportunity in electrification and re-shoring.”
“通过Prima，我们正在支持大量的客户，这些客户正在围绕电气化，EV充电器，用于热泵的控制系统，我们正在为他们制作。这些是一系列成熟的客户和不想投资制造的规模升级。
“这组内部创造的这一技能是一系列技能，可以在Denchi应用于电池和电子产品和RAM，但有PRIMA有助于改进制造设计，测试设计，这使得成本和可靠性提高。RAM需要注意批量生产过程，因此Prima可以帮助
“对于Prima和DeNchi，销售和营销来自个别公司和RAM，我们正在早期阶段，我们与销售和营销具有预先存在的关系。我们只想与使用甘和力量的人合作，谁将为我们提供包装，我们正在与开发新型电力转换器架构的公司合作。我们将成为他们的制造合作伙伴。“
“This is a consequence of the model – it engenders a more collaborative model, they need us as much as we need them and we all prosper if we all work together. There were already lots of organisations working with RAM but were uncertain about their ability to scale up,
“这三者的模型是他们有自己的领导者，并将独立发展战略，我的工作将在集团层面连接所有要素，”罗布尔说。
“Denchi builds chargers for battery projects and the challenges for defence applications are the fixed space available. By using GaN power converters you can shrink the weight and volume and that will give Denchi a competitive edge but not for the next two or three years. So we are building out a five year roadmap and thinking about the product development and the technology roadmap
For the larger batteries, for rail and energy storage, we are working with off the shelf inverters – we can definitely do the power at the smaller scale for a bespoke design but for the larger stuff we need to stick with off the shelf items.
这突出了扩展的挑战。“我们需要真正小心我们专注于什么，”他说。“我需要巩固一段时间。这种方法有一个个人关系，拥有两个家伙所待的，最大的事情正在建立这种关系。“
“The biggest challenge with Denchi is about engineering recruitment. [Acquiring] a project engineering company would be interesting and perhaps something that has foothold in a market such as rail or aerospace but I don’t have a particular one in mind.”
The advantages of the model are highlighted with the supply chain and maps to increased focus on environmental issues for customers.
“你Denchi和主要的驱动使用existing supply chain on the mechanical side we try to use UK suppliers. With RAM it will be more interesting as we will be directly involved in the specific manufacturing processes and have the ability to control the chemicals that are used and materials so there may be more opportunities. Just by building in the UK reduces carbon in transportation and stops the shifting of emissions, and there’s a real will to do more of this in the UK.”
“Some of the new technology developers who have taken VC investment, their shareholders have got some very strict rules in how the technology can be used and marketed in applications, aligned with sustainability and other areas. Really the power is with the money rather than waiting for government legislation,” he said.
下一篇：扩展计划
Even though Denchi is in Scotland, Prima is just outside Cambridge and RAM is in north Wales, the model is not particularly distributed, says Russel. But it does bring advantages.
“What we want is to find people close to an existing location,” he said. “I don’t want a fully distributed workforce working from home but the hybrid model being in the office and walking the floor is important so Russel Industries will be distributed near those three locations.”
“其他问题是扩展设施，在圣艾夫斯，剑桥郡，我们如何扩展DeNchi的新版本，以及肯定是将RAM搬进新建筑物的时间表。CEM [合同电子制造]的细微差别是客户的当地基础。随着我们获得的，我们已经增加了50％的营业额增加了50％，但所有客户都在40英里范围内，但部分扩张计划。“
“We have looked at perhaps three other CEMs as acquisition targets and upgrading Prima and now what I’m thinking is these CEMs are owner managed and may not be investing in new equipment but buying one of those with a new management team and new equipment.”
With a battery Gigafactory planned for Coventry there is increasing opportunity for the electrification eco-system across the West Midlands that is easily accessible from the Cambridge area for Prima and opportunities for Denchi, he says, although there are no plans to build a gigafactory quite yet.
“We are looking at a couple of sites for Prima locally and we can be in Coventry in under an hour,” he said. “If there are more players in the cell supply chain and some based in the UK that’s an upside for us, it gives us more choice and we will use the most appropriate cells.
There is also the value of sharing a site. “We are now thinking about creating Prima Deeside alongside RAM to share facilities and skills, that’s in our minds as a geographic expansion and gives us access to a pool of new customers.”
虽然没有直接计划的电池设备，但他说是该组织的可能性
“There is a place for companies such as Denchi to work with companies on the cell side but it would have been the wrong thing to do to be sustainable. Longer term as we grow that is something we are likely to do more of.
“It’s something we will get more involved in in the future its making sure we have the right amount of bandwidth, It is important to support other activity in the UK, it’s about the timing and our evolution,” he says.
www.primagroup.co.uk;www.denchipower.com.;ram-innovations.com
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