Woodley commemorates 25 years in the industry
pharmafile | October 17, 2014 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Sales and Marketing | Manchester, Supply, development, manufacturing, wickham, woodley
Medical supplier firm Woodley celebrated its 25-year anniversary this month at a lavish event at The Runway Visitor Park in Manchester.
Family, friends and work colleagues were all in attendance at Manchester Airport’s impressive aviation park, which is also home to the Concorde Conference Centre.
Woodley specialises in the international rental and sale of medical and laboratory equipment to the clinical trials industry, and founded back in 1989 Woodley Equipment is now a global business that has facilities just outside of London – along with a building in Massachusetts in the US. It also has three warehouses and office space in the Manchester area.
The product supplier’s managing director, Mike Wickham, who is also a bio-medical scientist, says: “we supply to distributors all over the world, and clinical trials was one of the first things we did very soon after starting the veterinary supply company, that was in 1990.”
Wickham opened the evening’s festivities with a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s 1958 song ‘Come Fly with Me’ at the event, which included dinner and entertainment plus a guided tour of an original Concorde, celebrating Woodley Equipment’s past, present and future.
Supplying everything from servicing and technical support to global training options, Woodley delivers apparatus to 150 countries worldwide. The firm’s clinical trials division offers a rental programme which includes the management of equipment breakdowns, repairs and maintenance plus global logistics.
Wickham shows Pharmafile an example of product development: “This little device here I’ve been working on for about 12 months. It’s a little device that you clip your iPhone onto and it fastens onto a microscope eyepiece and you can take photos down the microscope, it is dead simple and only going to cost £49; I think it is going to sell well.”
Furthermore, close to completion is Woodley’s own brand of centrifuge, “this is actually the first time we’ve commissioned a centrifuge and built it using our own name. It’s taken more than 12 months to get to this stage,” adds Wickham.
During the evening Wickham thanked the company’s staff for all their hard work over the 25 years, but also speaking at the anniversary celebration was Robin Wickham, director of the clinical trials division at Woodley.
He explained that for the last year the department has been developing a brand new customer relationship management system. Designed to be simpler and quicker to manage, it will aim to improve the firm’s quotes and estimates service.
From the firm’s humble beginnings 25 years ago to becoming one of the leading medical equipment suppliers, Woodley is looking to expand in the years to come with new staff, new office space and new products.
Pharmafocus’s attendance at the 25 anniversary event was sponsored by Woodley.
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