Given we launched our first product - the BriteAngle LED Warning Triangle – in April 2018, this has been our first full calendar year in business. And what a whirlwind of a year it has been!
Delivering our export strategy has been a major focus for us and thanks to a series of Welsh Government trade missions, we have taken the BriteAngle to Dubai, Sweden, Denmark and Australia – all with the aim of meeting potential distributors for our BriteAngle product range.
We had success in all markets and formed partnerships in the United Arab Emirates and Australia. Interestingly, our relationship with Australian distributor, Dometic, means that RV and truck drivers who travel across the remote outback, leaving themselves at risk of death by dehydration and even crocodile attacks should they have the misfortune to break down, are now much more visible from the air when they carry a BriteAngle with them - vastly increasing their chances of survival!
Our aim for the year ahead is to secure new distributors in the USA and Canada (as well as in the UK), and if we achieve that, we anticipate international sales will represent as much as 75% of our total sales.
In June of this year, we launched our second road safety product at Prescott Bike Festival – the BriteAngle MotoBrite. Created as a direct result of feedback from motorcyclists who want to be safer on the road, the MotoBrite combines the technology and engineering of our warning triangle with a design that fits discretely to all motorcycles. With sales of our first two products going from strength to strength, we’re excited to launch a further two in 2020 – with more to come.
Underpinning every single product in our BriteAngle range is the drive and determination to do all we can to keep people seen and safe on the roadside. It’s our mission. The thing that gets us up in the morning.
Our aim is that one day, it will be a legal obligation to carry a warning triangle on every vehicle in the UK – as it is in so many other countries. But making this case to decision-makers isn’t a quick or easy task. It requires mass support, including from high-profile individuals, so having a platform to raise awareness of the need for this change in the law is essential.
That’s why we’ve been hugely grateful and humbled to receive a number of prestigious awards this year. Not only were we named ‘Export Business of the Year’ in the Welsh SME Business Awards and ‘Fleet Safety Product of the Year’ at the Brake Fleet Safety Awards, we were finalists in the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards and Intelligent Instructor Awards, and highly commended in the First Car Awards and Practical Caravan Tourer of the Year Awards.
For a small but growing business like ours, getting this level of recognition is mind-blowing. And this - together with the countless emails and comments on social media from customers who love our products – has given us all the motivation we need to work even harder in 2020 to make a real difference to the lives of road users around the world.
In the meantime, we’d just like to thank each and every one of our loyal customers, supporters, distributers and suppliers. We simply wouldn’t have been able to achieve any of this without you, so THANK YOU!
