Randox Laboratories Ltd
Randox Laboratories Ltd was founded on the 22 April 1982 in Crumlin, Co Antrim. They had a desire to create employment within Northern Ireland. This was in the early Eighties and the ‘troubles’ were bad. There was a net migration of graduates out of Ireland. They felt it would be beneficial for the community to create a high technology business. I searched for products/markets which we could make and sell products into. We came across market of In-Vitro diagnostics dominated by German and American multinational companies.
Employees
Randox currently employs 452 staff in Ireland and another 120 staff in 24 countries. This is 577 staff worldwide. We have approximately 700 suppliers. Our Annualised Salary bill in Ireland is £9.8m.
Customers
Randox supplies medical and veterinary Diagnostic products to about 17,000 hospitals and clinical laboratories worldwide in 128 countries. Randox is a developer, manufacturer and marketer of In-Vitro diagnostic products which are used as aids in the diagnosis of a multitude of disease conditions. The In-Vitro diagnostics industry is a sub-sector of the Biotechnology/Pharmaceutical sector.
Products
Randox has developed the most extensive range of Clinical Chemistry In-Vitro diagnostic kits and controls of any manufacturer in the world. Our Products can be used on a wider range of instrumentation than any of our competitors due to our aggressive product development. Furthermore, Randox is the leading company in the world in the development of protein Biochips for diagnostic use, and we have developed the world’s first diagnostic system based on Biochips and built and developed the world’s first Protein Biochip manufacturing facility.
Benefits
Randox’s Protein Biochips and our analyser system called Evidence will revolutionize medical diagnostics over the next few years. The concept is that using the Biochips many tests can be executed at one time on a single sample. The traditional method is that one test at a time is carried out on a patient sample. Randox have developed the ability to put many tests onto a microchip and simultaneously measure many different tests (analytes) in the serum (blood) or any other fluid. This will enable, eventually, the Clinician to achieve a much more accurate medical diagnosis. We have already developed more accurate tests for Cardiovascular disease, and Stroke. We expect to have early detection tests for Breast cancer, Ovarian cancer and Colo Rectal cancer. Furthermore, we have developed the world’s first laboratory diagnostic test for Stress.
Achievement
Randox is a medium sized company and we have by relentless re-investment of Profits, developed a completely revolutionary technology - Protein Biochips. We have developed the world’s first Protein Biochip Analyser - Evidence. Randox has designed and built the world’s first Biochip manufacturing facility. This has necessitated in the development of innovative manufacturing equipment.
Randox has brought this technology/system to market in the last quarter of 2003. Randox has 12 large high profit Laboratories/Hospitals from the US - Europe - China, using, routinely, this technology/system to improve their clinical diagnostic ability.
This stage of Randox’s history ie the development of Protein Biochips/Evidence analyser has taken 11 years development and £60m of funds. This project has been mainly funded from retained profits. 185 Scientists and engineers have been involved in this project.
Furthermore, Randox has a very large scale project ongoing to develop a vast range of tests for novel markets in a variety of disease conditions from Breast cancer, Ovarian cancer, Colo Rectal cancer, Oesophageal cancer, Cardiovascular disease, Stroke and Traumatic Brain injury. Randox has the highest rate of new assay development of any Biotechnology company in the world.
We have successfully developed Reconbinant Antibody technology to enable us to develop many new biological ligands which are crucial to the successful development of new tests/assays for disease identification.
How did the business idea first come about?
Randox Laboratories Ltd was founded on the 22 April 1982 in Crumlin, Co Antrim. I had a desire to create employment within Northern Ireland. This was in the early Eighties and the ‘troubles’ were bad. There was a net migration of graduates out of Ireland. We felt it would be beneficial for the community to create a high technology business. I searched for products/markets which we could make and sell products into. We came across market of In-Vitro diagnostics dominated by German and American multinational companies.
What were your immediate next steps to make it happen?
Having carried out Market research into the potential for the supply of clinical diagnostic products, we built and equipped a small laboratory at the back of my parents’ house in Co Antrim. My parents supported me in this venture from the very beginning. Having built the small laboratory in a hen house/stable we equipped it with second-hand laboratory equipment bought/donated from Queens University, Belfast.
I resigned from my position as a Research Fellow at Queens University to work full time developing the first diagnostic products. These we launched on the market in 1982 and we travelled around the British Isles endeavouring to sell our products against multinational Pharma/Diagnostic organisations such as Roche/Abbott/Bayer. Slowly but relentlessly we won customers and gradually we developed overseas markets as well.
How did you identify your first customers to target?
Our target customers were very clear, they were Hospital Laboratories mainly in the public sector in Ireland and the UK. We visited as many potential customers in these Islands as possible and found the Celtic region were much more receptive in the beginning. It was very difficult in the early days to convince Hospitals outside Ireland that a small company in the outback of Co Antrim could deliver and manufacture quality clinical diagnostic products. We had to ensure that our deliveries and service was superior to our competitors. A lot of our potential customers thought we were going to be blown up and they would not receive their orders. But our Celtic aggression and charm, persuaded them to go with us.
What sale practices work best, in your experience?
Randox executes many different distribution routes and sales practices as well. We have developed a very comprehensive distributor network covering 130 Countries. This has been a very effective means of gaining global penetration. But over the past few years we have had a policy of building a direct selling organisation worldwide. Currently we have 24 overseas offices and 120 staff in these offices. We are very keen as an organisation to build up close and direct relationships with as many of our customers as possible.
At Randox we feel we are only really starting. Although we have been in business 22 years and we manufacture 2.2% of all tests executed in the world in the clinical chemistry sector of the market.We have massive room for market development, which we expect to see very clearly over the next few years. The transformation of Randox from what we perceive as a medium sized company to the leading diagnostic company in the world. So we feel we are evolving and growing all the time and have not arrived.
What key piece of advice would you give to a start up entrepreneur?
Advice to another start up entrepreneur would be that you will receive many knocks and setbacks. Sometimes from quarters you would never expect, but keep your self-belief, analyse all situations but do not loose your self-confidence. Self-belief is vital, if you loose this – you may be lost. There will be immense problems, hard work, intelligent analysis, team building are all traits which you require to cultivate. But self-belief is vital to the achieving of this vision.
 |
