British born brands: How can we support our own?
London, 11th September London: Episode 18 of the Autotrader podcast Women in the driving seat, hosted by Editorial Director, award-winning motoring journalist Erin Baker is released today. The series aims to rip up the rule book on the female-empowerment narrative by sharing personal as well as professional experiences, examining the space where both collide, and the challenges, fears and successes happen.
This episode explores the journey to beginning a car manufacturing company and navigating work life as a female CEO in a huge conglomerate.
All episodes in the series feature a Podcast Pit Stop – a quick fire round covering the professional and personal including; Convertible or coupe? On-road or off-road? Start-up founder or company CEO?
Join Erin as she puts two wonderful women in the driving seat.
Rebecca Denyer
“British engineering has historically been world-class and I think we forget that and we forget British manufacturing is so vital.”
“It’s such a large part of the economy and we really need to back British and I’m an advocate for buying local.”
“Really wanted to build a great product, both adore classic cars and really frustrated with the unreliability of our classic cars sitting in the garage not being used and we wanted to solve that problem.”
“We decided let’s convert our own classic cars and from that our business started as a conversion company and then we’ve made a shift into brand-new retro-looing cars, built from the ground up”
‘We just loved classic vehicles and that look, and modern cars don’t have that.”
“Once we started going down that route of having a modern electric car, you do start thinking about environmentally friendly, you do start realising you don’t actually need the smells and the fumes.”
“One of our cars parked in someone’s garage could charge their four-bedroom house for a whole weekend.”
“People don’t understand how their car could be used for their home energy, it’s only when you start going down this path you start to learn more.”
“Electric vehicles and sustainable energy solutions have been around a long time yet we’re still not educating people enough to understand it.”
Lynn Calder
“INEOS has quite a clear culture, it’s not for everyone – it’s got very clear lines of accountability.”
“It’s sort of work hard, play hard mentality, it’s a real no-nonsense vibe. Everyone does kind of say it as they see it. The vibe is great; it’s a lot of fun.”
“US is our biggest market so [tariffs] have hit us very hard more than 60% of our sales are in the US.”
“Going from 2.5% to 27.5% in port tariffs has had a fairly major impact, however we’ve worked with our retail partners, and we’ve worked on only a 5% increase to our customers.”
“We entered the US bricks and mortar, very traditionally from the word go and that’s where it has worked the best.”
“I think [Britain] is a country that’s got such rich automotive heritage and that’s really exciting.”
Erin Baker
“I don’t think blokes ever get called outspoken or punchy or ballsy, it seems to only apply to women that speak the truth or speak their mind.”
“Not enough CEO’s or execs in my opinion tell it like it is.”
Notes to editors
ABOUT ERIN BAKER
Erin Baker is an award-winning motoring journalist and Editorial Director of Auto Trader. She writes a monthly driving column for Vogue, is a World Car of the Year judge, consults for Goodwood and hosts She's Electric, a national roadshow bringing women and electric cars together. Erin is passionate about narrowing the gender gap, both in the automotive industry itself and between car brands and female consumers, through more targeted language, marketing and experiences. She is a single mother of two boys.
ABOUT LYNN CALDER
Lynn Calder was appointed CEO of INEOS Automotive in 2022, having spent most of her career in the petrochemicals and energy sectors. Lynn has worked within the INEOS Group for five years, with previous roles including CEO of INEOS Composites and Commercial Director of INEOS Phenol.
Before joining the INEOS Group in January 2017, Lynn worked as an investor for a specialist private equity fund in the energy sector for eight years. Prior to this, she spent eight years working in a variety of commercial roles for Talisman Energy, latterly as Non-Operated Interests Manager.
In her spare time, Lynn is a keen sportswoman and enjoys participating in endurance running, triathlon, road cycling and adventure racing.
ABOUT REBECCA DENYER
Rebecca Denyer is co-founder of Sebring Works, where she and her husband hand-build brand new electric retro-inspired sports cars. Life off the track includes teens, a bouncy lab, and enough hormones (hers included!) to keep fuel a nation. She’s always up for a laugh, a run around the hockey pitch, and a strong coffee.
ABOUT AUTOTRADER
Autotrader Group plc is the UK’s largest automotive platform. It listed on the London Stock Exchange in March 2015 and is a member of the FTSE 100 Index.
Autotrader’s purpose is Driving Change Together. Responsibly. Autotrader is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive culture, it aims to build stronger partnerships with its customers and use its voice and influence to drive more environmentally friendly vehicle choices.
With the largest number of car buyers and the largest choice of trusted stock, Autotrader’s marketplace sits at the heart of the UK car buying process. That marketplace is built on an industry-leading technology and data platform, which is increasingly used across the automotive industry. Autotrader is continuing to bring more of the car buying journey online, creating an improved buying experience, whilst enabling all its retailer partners to sell vehicles online.
Autotrader publishes a monthly used car Retail Price Index which is based on pricing analysis of circa 800,000 unique vehicles. The same data that powers the Index is used by the Office for National Statistics to make the UK’s official measures of inflation more robust, as well as the Bank of England to feed the broader UK economic indicators.
For more information, please visit: plc.autotrader.co.uk
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