Our profile of industry companies

1. 54 | July - August 2014 GRAIN&FEED MILLING TECHNOLOGY
Market growth, specialised premises and a unique range
of products combined with addressing challenges of the
future, were all topics covered when GFMT visited the
innovative company R-Biopharm Rhône in Glasgow – the host of
this years Commonwealth Games - on Friday May 30, 2014.
Five members of staff stopped by in Glasgow on their return from
Aquaculture UK in Aviemore.
There has been a good partnership between the company and
GFMT, with articles and advertising published relating to this com-pany’s
work and development..
During the visit, we also gained knowledge about the company and
what makes them unique, understood their products and saw their
facilities first hand.
Simon Bevis, Managing Director and Claire Milligan, Product
Manager, talked to us about growth in the market, the specialised
premises that they work in, the unique features of their products and
the markets they reach along with the challenges they will face as they
become further internationalised.
From Strathclyde University
As a background to this company, the story begins in 1986. A spin-off
venture from Strathclyde University was founded and achieved
great growth.
Thirteen years later, in 2009, the company moved into purpose-built
premises on the West of Scotland Science Park. Today there are
55 employees researching, manufacturing, marketing and distributing
test kits for mycotoxins to vitamin content from the Glasgow premises.
The company is a Scottish subsidiary of a German parent company,
which is approximately 10 times larger and manufactures a range of
different products. Approximately 70 percent of their custoomer are
overseas.
Exporting to customers all around the world, in around 150 coun-tries,
is a reason why they have doubled their turnover since 2009.
Trading in Turkey for more than 20 years and other growing markets,
they have a strong foothold in developing markets.
Simon Bevis said that former Soviet Russian countries are develop-ing
and sales to Eastern and Central Europe are also growing.
South America is close to this magazine with our employees and
office in Buenos Aires, and it is also a focus for R-Biopharm Rhône.
The parent company also runs a subsidiary both in Argentina and
Brazil and is able to export to these growing markets. In a global
context, India, China, Malaysia and Thailand are growing quicker than
the Lati American regions, but they still feel that they are doing well
for their Latin American customers.
Talk of China led us to ask further about this country. In essence, Mr
Bevis is confident that with their product’s level of quality and technical ability,
the company will become a leader in China. The immunoaffinity columns
produced by R-Biopharm Rhône are not patented but they do not expect to
encounter any unknown competitive risks to their product and market share.
When turning to Africa, the challenge for many of the developing
countries is addressing eating maize that is high in mycotoxins.
Eating maize high in mycotoxins can consistently lead to an early
death.
“The solutions that R-Biopharm Rhône provide did not exist 20
years ago”, Mr Bevis says.
“Now it does exist and it is easier for the instruments to detect a
value and enact change”.
He went on to say that the technology is a lot more sensitive and
what may have read as a zero value 20 years ago, now can read with
a value.
Testing for contaminants, antibodies, vitamins and mycotoxins is a
precise science. Mr Bevis decried the general problem of, “ignorance
about the problems of mycotoxins in some developing countries” as
mycotoxins can develop in many places and through many means –
even in logistics, supply chain and storage facilities.
R-Biopharm Rhône is able to serve customers by delivering a wide
range of testing kits and more. Our tour included a tour of the R&D
labs, quality department and cell culture. The company is a proud
“pioneer of vitamin analysis” and keeps its reputation alive with con-sistently
striving, investing and innovating.
Currently, when analysing the sectors for R-Biopharm Rhône, Ms
Milligan says how animal feed and petfood are equally weighted at the
moment, with animal feed being notably larger in Asia.
On our tour, we discovered that the company is a member of
Campden BRI. This was great to see because GFMT was recently the
media partner for the first animal feed conference at Campden BRI.
(See more on the conference http://bit.ly/globalmiller).
Mr Bevis and Ms Milligan emphasised a simple goal for their prod-ucts-
“to be in the right place at the right time”.
Mr Bevis was proud to conclude that they wish to grow more,
so will invest a grant from Enterprise Scotland in a project to semi-automate
production, a total investment of UK£250,000 (US$420,000
or €300,000) which will allow the company to increase production by
at least 50 percent.
R-Biopharm Rhône are an Investor in People accredited company,
and will try for the gold status this coming October. The company is
also ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 certified. Staff’s average stay with the
company is a very loyal eightyears. Corporate Social Responsibility
plays a very important part and the company sponsors a horse named
Bailey at a local charity - Riding for the Disabled Association.
As the visit concluded, we left very impressed indeed. In this issue,
look out for an article on mycotoxins in animal feed.
INDUSTRY PROFILE
GFMT TALKS TO SOME OF THE
INDUSTRIES LEADING COMPANIES
R-Biopharm Rhône Ltd
by Tom Blacker, Grain & Feed Milling Technology magazine
More information:
R-Biopharm Rhône Ltd
Tel: +44 141 945 2924
Website: www.r-biopharm.com