The Beginning
1982 was a remarkable year: Michael Jackson released the album Thriller, Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster E.T. was shown in the cinemas, the first Commodore 64 was launched – and Anton Paar founded its first sales subsidiary in Great Britain.
From the early 1970s, Anton Paar products were distributed in the United Kingdom by Stanton Redcroft Ltd. In 1982, Sales Manager Bryan Leslie Treherne and brothers Kevin and Paul Jiggens, as well as Mike Stevens, decided to break new ground. After a visit of then-Anton Paar CEO Ulrich Santner and his daughter Barbara, the decision was made to establish the first sales subsidiary in London. On January 6, 1982, Paar Scientific Ltd. finally started in a small office in Raynes Park near Wimbledon in South London. It was a small store located between a Chinese take-away and a tile store. In 2004, the company name was changed to Anton Paar Ltd. A branch office was established by the British sales subsidiary in Dublin in 2011, and in 2021 it became Anton Paar Ireland.
“We are all very proud to be celebrating our 40th anniversary at Anton Paar Ltd,” says Anton Paar UK Managing Director Huw Bevan,” who has been General Manager since 2014 and will host a 40-year celebratory evening party in London. “This is a fantastic achievement and true testament to the drive, enthusiasm, and commitment of our employees and the support we have received from our customers. We look forward to continuing our growth together over the next 40 years.”
Ongoing Growth in St. Albans
Since 2012, Anton Paar Ltd. has been located in the cathedral city of St. Albans, about 40 kilometers north of London. Around the turn of the century, the company had 13 employees and achieved a turnover of just over 1.5 million pounds (about 2.2 million euros). Today, Anton Paar Ltd. employs 46 people, and its turnover has increased enormously, to more than 10 million pounds (11.65 million euros).
“The true value of our company lies in the knowledge, drive, and enthusiasm of our employees” says Mr Bevan. “Many of them have been with Anton Paar for quite a few years, and we currently have seven colleagues with more than 15 years’ service. In 2018, our longest serving employee, Brian Phillips, retired after an amazing 30 years with the company!”
New Location for the Future
Despite the headwind caused by the UK’s decision to leave the EU, there are still plenty of opportunities for further growth. The company serves an increasingly broad range of customers across industries, such as beverage, academia, chemical, and pharmaceutical.
According to Mr Bevan, the company will expand further in the next few years, and a new location is already being planned: “The new headquarters will be more than twice the size of the office in St. Albans,” he says. “The completion of this project will take a few years. Then we will be able to celebrate another landmark in our history.”
Anton Paar develops, produces, and distributes highly accurate laboratory instruments and process measuring systems, and provides custom-tailored automation and robotic solutions. It is the world leader in the measurement of density, concentration, and CO2 and in the field of rheometry. For decades, the company has invested around 20 percent of Anton Paar GmbH’s turnover in R&D.
The success of Anton Paar UK mirrors that of the Graz-headquartered company as a whole: 100 years after Anton Paar founded a small machine shop, Anton Paar is now a global corporation, with over 3,600 employees, 45 sister companies and subsidiaries, 50 sales partners, and operations in more than 110 countries around the world.
Find out more by visiting their website or contacting them via email info.gb@anton-paar.com
