Forty years of change in the UK laboratory supply market

Forty years is a long time, but what has happened in the laboratory supply industry over that period? This article celebrates those forty years by looking at how the UK market has changed and how this is reflected in the UK laboratory exhibition market.

SO what has happened to the laboratory exhibitions in the UK? Most people who remember the heydays of UK laboratory exhibitions – say the late 70s, 80s and early 90s – but it probably all started in 1960 when LABEX was launched. The British Laboratory Ware Association (The BLWA – now the laboratory sector within GAMBICA) was one of the founding sponsors.

In 1970 the BLWA launched its own London show, LABWARE 70. It was not the first exhibition the association had run; in the previous two years the association had organised two regional shows, at Cambridge and Newcastle Universities. LABWARE 70 was held at the Bloomsbury Centre hotel and was opened by the then Secretary of State for Education and Science, Margaret Thatcher. LABWARE continued to operate biannually and by all accounts, successfully.

LABEX on the other hand ran into problems when, in 1975, it was dogged by militant strikes. As a result it moved to the new International Exhibition Centre just outside Birmingham (and by all accounts was a disaster). A few years later it was brought back to London and sold to a company called ITF, who re-branded it as SEMLAB; in this guise the exhibition, ran in the years when LABWARE was not scheduled.

There was a strong protectionist policy around LABWARE, with the intention of keeping foreign companies from exhibiting (even into the 1960s the BLWA had operated like a UK cartel for the laboratory business). An example of this was a reported comment from a visitor from Chile made at the 1978 show, to the effect that “UK manufacturers don’t seem prepared for export”. I think things have moved on a little since.

In 1979 two people who had previously been with ITF, Evan Steadman and Brian Curtis, launched LABORATORY 79 at the Barbican through their company, Curtis Steadman. They introduced a brash new vigour into the scene, which, it is reported did not impress the BLWA council members, so much so, that at a certain laboratory function tempers ran high and Brian Curtis was unceremoniously dropped into the pool of the London Hilton Hotel.

During this time the BLWA were working more closely with the Scientific Instrument Manufacturers Association (SIMA – later to become part of GAMBICA) to sponsor laboratory events jointly and to monitor their progress (or, in most cases, lack of it). This led to an agreement with ITF to merge SEMLAB and LABWARE and form TECTRONICA 83. The show did not get the support required, and was eventually merged with the LABORATORY show to form THE LONDON LABORATORY SHOW (held at Olympia). This later became the BRITISH LABORATORY WEEK which ran until the late 1990s.

In recent years we have seen several laboratory exhibitions come and go; the most recent was LAB in 2007 The first of these was not too well attended by visitors and the second, planned for 2009, was pulled as the impacts of the financial crisis was felt. Prior to that (2001-2005) we had IBLA, at a now very tired Olympia. With an average of around four years, the lifespan of an exhibition seems very short.

So has the industry reflected this? Well only in part. There are two major factors affecting exhibitions in the UK and two affecting the industry.

Within the industry we have seen many mergers, acquisitions and disposals and this is also reflected in the customer base. A look at the members of SIMA in 1974 shows a few famous names; now part of other companies or are they still independent?

Which of these do you think are still independent? Pye Unicam, Stanton Redcroft, Shandon Southern Instruments, Grant Instruments, Baird Atomic, Rank Brothers, H Tinsley and Co, MSE. The list could go on.

A list of members of the BLWA in 1999 has the following companies: Bellingham & Stanley, ELGA, Jencons and Stuart Scientific. All these are now part of larger organisations.

Secondly the world is a smaller place, and as the laboratory sectors clients become global so do the suppliers who serve them. In 2006 Astra Zeneca told the annual UK laboratory suppliers’ conference that they were going to shift some of their presence to India and China and that if their suppliers wanted to be with them they needed to establish a proper presence in that country.

Nowadays many of the major clients of yesteryear (chemicals, petrochemical, coatings and other large manufacturing industries) have gone. Some of these have been replaced by clients in areas such as food and beverage, biotechnology and environmental. There are many smaller clients too, located in science parks and other areas.

Exhibitions have also changed, everyone still attends the major shows in Germany (and regionally, Dubai) but almost everything else is now a country specific show. Even shows such as Pittcon no longer attract the same international visitors as 20 years ago and it is very rare you’ll see a visitor from Chile, for example, at a UK show.

The UK also had an odd attitude to exhibitions during the noughties. In the late nineties many employers thought that visiting an exhibition was reallya bit of a jolly, whereas in Europe, America and many other countries, it has always been seen as part of personal development. The internet allows people to peruse specifications and so on, (although who hasn’t spent a day checking stuff on the net and then wondering where the day went?).

To counter this, conferences attached to exhibitions are now much stronger, helping visitors get more out of attending. There are also many smaller, more focused events but many still think there is a space in the UK for a “proper laboratory show”.

As the world becomes dominated by larger brands (whether it’s clothes or laboratory equipment) there are always spaces available for those independents; the innovative, flexible companies that often have to export (something GAMBICA continues to help with) to survive. The UK’s history in this area is outstanding and unlikely to disappear in the near future. The process continues: as companies are purchased, so new ones start and grow. The same is true of exhibitions. In 2012 easyFairs will launch a new laboratory show, LAB INNOVATIONS, at the NEC on November 7th and 8th. We wish them well, will support them and hope it is the first of many.

Contact: W: www.gambica.org.uk E: assoc@gambica.org.uk

Author: Tim Collins, MRSC, Director - Laboratory Technology Sector (GAMBICA) Association for Instrumentation, Control, Automation & Laboratory Technology

The author would like to thank Katrina Bateman whose report on “The history of the BLWA” supplied much of the information for this article.