Ishan Kamdar

Hi, I’m Ishan.I’m Managing Director at Comline, a family-built automotive aftermarket business that’s grown from a small Wembley warehouse into a multi-brand, pan-European operation supplying some of the largest buying groups in the industry.I didn’t always plan to join the family business.After studying economics at Cambridge and starting my career in finance, I was convinced I’d take a different path. But over time, I found myself drawn back, not just to continue what was built, but to evolve it.Since stepping into the business, I’ve focused on expanding our commercial footprint across Europe, building new product divisions from scratch, and strengthening our position inside major buying groups like Temot, AD, and Global One.Today, Comline operates across multiple brands, supplying distributors and buying groups across the UK and Europe. We’re not trying to be everything to everyone. Instead, we focus on doing a few things well - building the right product range, maintaining strong availability, and supporting our partners in a way that actually helps them compete in their own markets.So on here, I share a mix of what I’m seeing across the European aftermarket, lessons from running and scaling a family business, and the realities of operating in a market where change is slow, but when it happens, it matters.Outside of work, I recently moved to Madrid with my family, partly for the adventure, partly to build a more international life (and yes, to finally learn Spanish properly).If you’re working in or around the aftermarket, always happy to connect.