Part of our Women’s Month feature series — Four Branches, Four Bosses
Sarisha has spent an estimated 17 years in the tyre and motor industry — and it started, quite literally, from the ground up. She began at 19, working part-time in the motor industry as an admin and accounts assistant. It was there that tyres got under her skin. “When I learned more about tyres, I moved to sales,” she says, “and then I got so used to smelling like rubber that I refused to leave.”
Getting to the manager’s chair wasn’t a straight road. After several attempts at a prior company, Sarisha was overlooked — purely, she says, because of her gender, at an organisation she describes as “an all-boys club.” Rather than continuing to push at a closed door, she made a deliberate move: she took a salary cut to join a company built on a value she wanted to see lived out, not just written on a wall. “I decided to make a move in the right direction to work at a company with integrity — Super Tyres.”
Even then, the path took patience. Sarisha spent time in a Joint Venture depot without quite excelling — one of the hardest sales roles to break into, even with years of experience already behind her. The turning point came at Gateway, where under her manager’s guidance she thrived, becoming Salesman of the Year in 2024. That recognition rebuilt her confidence and opened the door back to where she felt she belonged. When the opportunity to step up arose, she took it. “I’m always grateful to senior management for affording me the opportunity.”
Ask her team what they think of her and one word keeps coming up: respectful. “My team appreciates that I am respectful toward them and treat them all equally,” she says — though she’s quick to add they also appreciate her honesty, “and sometimes dislike that I don’t bend rules.”
Has the industry changed for women in her time? Sarisha believes it genuinely has. “Thankfully we are in an age where gender no longer defines your role in the workplace,” she says, though she still occasionally sees the older generation “get a little startled” when they learn the tyre store manager is a woman. She remembers a time when customers would choose to deal with male co-workers instead of her, simply because that’s what society deemed fit. Today, her approach is simple: she meets that moment with knowledge and expertise and reminds her customers exactly what women are capable of.
What does she love most about the job? People, and variety. “I love meeting new people, I love my environment, I most enjoy sharing my knowledge with those around me.” Mechanically minded from the start, she’s never minded getting her hands dirty — and on “Hero Day,” when roles across the store get shuffled, she’s just as happy pitching in wherever she’s needed.
Her advice to any young woman weighing up a future in this industry is blunt and encouraging in equal measure: “Go for it! Nothing should hold you back — it’s better to try and fail than to fail to try. You may love it or you may not — either way it’s a new title under your belt, and if all else fails, at least you would have learned new skills.”
Read more stories of the women in our Super Tyres team as we celebrate Women’s Month.