The official flower for a 25th anniversary is the iris, and it is also recognized as the birth flower for the month of February. Irises represent wisdom, hope, and trust, and are known for their vibrant colours and unique shape. I think it is therefore quite appropriate that we adopt the iris as a symbol this year as we celebrate 25 years in business.
Oxford Biosystems Ltd began its life in Oxford, UK on February 14th 2001. It’s founder, John Coombes, set up the company to provide laboratory kits and reagents to end users in the UK and Ireland. It is a company built with the support of family and colleagues alike, and I hope continues to have the same values as John, and his fellow Director back in 2001, Helen Church.
The aim of the company at the beginning, and still today, is to provide our customers with quality products and excellent service. We achieve this through the hard work of our employees and their commitment to the success of the Company. This is an opportunity to say “Thank you” to all Oxford Biosystems employees, past and present, because all of you have played a part in us reaching the place we are now.
We rely also on the support of our suppliers. Many of companies we work with have supported Oxford Biosystems since the early days of the company. They provide us with products, technical support, and after sales service that mean we can promote their products with confidence. Over the years the business relationships have blossomed, and personal friendships have developed, so to all of our suppliers, we thank you.
In 2009 Oxford Biosystems merged with Cadama Medical and this brought a new Managing Director in Mark Upton, new suppliers and exciting new products. We were able to reach more customers and the company continued to grow successfully. When John (reluctantly!) retired in 2018, we were part of the BioVendor Group, a company based in Brno, Czechia, who had been a trusted supplier for many years and purchased Oxford Biosystems in 2015. We welcomed 2 new directors in Michal Kostka and Matej Milata and moved to Milton Park in Abingdon.
Over the next few years we continued to grow and met new challenges in the form of a global pandemic and Brexit! We all know that the pandemic not only brought both personal and professional challenges, but also changed the healthcare market and the way we work.
In 2022, after working at Oxford Biosystems for 12 years, and having the role of CEO since 2019, I found myself starting the next phase of Oxford Biosystems with a management buyout and now we are once again a privately owned company. We still work closely with all companies in the Biovendor Group, and their support, as well as the trust and backing from all our other suppliers during and following the buyout, has helped us to meet this challenge and to maintain our growth successfully.
Our small team also relies on companies like BBI Brandboost (Marketing), AHR Solutions (HR), MGroup (Accounts), Lawbox (Legal advice) and Aspect Scientific (Engineer support) and our thanks goes to all of them for the years they have offered sound advice and specialised skills.
We are celebrating our 25th birthday in a number of ways. Today, after the obligatory birthday cake, we have a team of volunteers, led by our Finance Manager Mark Aspell, heading out to Besselsleigh Wood to plant 25 trees – 1 for each of our years trading. It is part of our commitment to the environment and our carbon reduction plan. We are proud to be a carbon neutral company and will continue to work at reducing our carbon footprint.
Follow us on LinkedIn and in look out for News on our website, to join our celebrations.
From me, and our Management team of Victoria Munro, Dan Archer and Mark Aspell, and all our excellent team – THANK YOU to our Suppliers, Customers and Colleagues!
We look forward to the next 25 years…and beyond!
Fiona Alcock
CEO
Oxford Biosystems Ltd