THE CULTURE OF
SUSTAINABLE PROGRESS here is an air of contentment and productivity in St Neots. At its epicentre is the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) headquarters of Cole-Parmer, a leading global manufacturer and supplier of scientific laboratory equipment and consumables for the pharmaceutical, industrial, environmental, food and beverage and academic markets. If we rewind by eight months, this was the home of Kinesis, winner of The Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2016. The drive for this level of scientific excellence and outstanding achievement is still very much a focus for all involved, but things have elevated to a grander scale. Looking back to the beginning, Kinesis was founded in 1997, by a group of likeminded individuals, including Jamie and Debbie Gallifant, who took pride in building upwards from the desk space of a spare room to becoming an internationally recognised champion of chromatography supplies, in the UK, Australia, Germany, Italy, and the USA. Driving the business forward and offering unrivalled service and support to their global customer base, whilst retaining their identity and ethos, was critical. The most logical step was to join with another company, and so, Kinesis was acquired by Cole-Parmer on 6 October 2016, following which the Kinesis St Neots premises underwent significant expansion to officially become the EMEA headquarters for ColeParmer on 1 January 2018. Jamie, now Managing Director of Cole-Parmer EMEA, expressed: “As with all integration projects there are challenges, but with the goodwill of all members of the Cole-Parmer family wanting to drive for success, the move to make St. Neots the headquarters of Cole-Parmer EMEA business has been a huge accomplishment. Being part of the Cole-Parmer family has created significant opportunities for existing and new personnel, to develop new career paths on a global basis, making the acquisition good for the company as a whole.” Jamie went on to say: “Cole-Parmer continues to provide pre-alignment of deuterium lamps, a chromatography
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service, and a pipette service. The Kinesis brand and other historical proprietary products have been retained, and we still offer commitment to the most prestigious brands in chromatography, such as IDEX, Diba, and Accustandard. The acquisition has given us all the opportunity to offer a broader portfolio. It is an exciting time for everyone, with product development creating the opportunity for our customers to access evolving, intuitive, accurate and precise products, so that they can focus their attention on results and data.” Cole-Parmer aims to provide products that serve the purpose of making life in the laboratory easier. They achieve this will simple and intuitive product development, whilst striving to provide more sophisticated solutions. At one end of the scale the company provides Stuart melting point apparatus, SMP50, that can record and save the precise point at which a sample melts, and thus allow the user to rest assured that their sample is free from impurities. There is also the TraceableGoTM bluetooth datalogging thermometer and hygrometer that is designed to travel with a sample, ensuring it is not compromised en-route. At the other end of the scale, however; are the more sophisticated products that are designed aid workload management, so that people have more freedom and flexibility to undertake other critical tasks. For a scientific professional there is a dream that the workplace can be smart and Internet of Things (IoT) integrated, making the collection of data seamless or the running of a laboratory process smoother. Over the past years we have seen a dramatic rise in the availability of ‘smart-home’ options. You can now programme your heating, display a high-resolution image or video on a window, get a fridge alert about out of date produce, and order your shopping just by speaking. For Cole-Parmer, the customer is number one as they tirelessly conduct activities for the benefit of others. Thanks to the merger, Cole-Parmer EMEA can provide the scientific community with a platform from which they can acquire such technology and help to make their lifestyle more fluidic. This technology revolves around CPLiveTM, a proprietary cloud-enabled technology, which allows you to remotely monitor and control a range of lab equipment and devices, acting as a personal assistant, by working around
the clock. Products that have this cloudbased technology include: MasterflexLiveTM enabled pumps which can be securely monitored and parameters intuitively adapted, by stopping, altering, and starting processes; CPLiveTM enabled Jenway spectrophotometers, that give scientists access to real-time data, letting them focus on results and protocols; and datalogger TraceableLive®, which is excellent for storage and clean rooms, giving real-time access to the environmental conditions of any Wi-Fi enabled location. The critical and most important aspect of CPLiveTM is that notifications and error messages can alert its user network to a threshold breach, thus preventing the loss of valuable samples. For any scientific professional this is an important improvement. Cole-Parmer is a $400M company, manufacturing products in multiple countries, who are committed to delivering leading edge instruments and services to its growing customer base. They will continue to put customers at the centre of everything they do, ensuring that they deliver levels of support and service that are the envy of competitors. Cole-Parmer believes in driving towards greater achievements, and giving scientists working in busy environments, with highvalue samples and hazardous materials, the freedom that they deserve. Watch this space for more technological developments.