Brandon celebrates 20 years in best of health

The firm has also proved that Yorkshire manufacturing is alive and kicking.

Yesterday, the firm celebrated 20 years of innovation and growth under the same ownership. In June 1993, managing director Graeme Hall and his family decided to acquire Leeds-based Brandon Engineering, and develop their own manufacturing business.

At the time, UK manufacturing was in the doldrums.

In 1995, Adrian Hall, Graeme’s brother, joined Brandon Medical, bringing with him production management and sales experience from Unilever.

He helped to transform Brandon from an engineering firm into a medical devices business. Over the past 20 years, the company has increased its portfolio of products and developed new technologies for the healthcare sector. It employs 54 staff from across the UK, ranging from apprentices and graduates to chartered engineers.

This year its turnover is expected to rise from £6.5m to £7m.

The company recently moved to a new manufacturing facility in Morley, West Yorkshire. In recent years, Brandon Medical has increased sales in emerging economies such as the Middle East and India.

Brandon’s lighting system makes it easier for surgeons to differentiate between tumours and surrounding tissue.

The lights help medical staff to cut out tumours with greater precision, which means a brain tumour can be removed while causing the minimum of harm to the brain.

The company has also launched an audio-visual system to improve healthcare training.

The system uses video and audio to allow surgical procedures to be supervised and viewed in high definition around the world.

In recent years, Brandon has developed a manufacturing process which involves moulding PolygieneTM (a well-known anti-microbial agent) directly into lamp heads. Polygiene is a powerful killing-agent, which has been successfully tested against a wide variety of harmful bacteria, viruses and yeasts including MRSA and SARS

Adrian Hall, the company’s joint managing director, said yesterday: “We’d describe ourselves as serial innovators. A big factor behind our success is not being afraid to invest. You have to look at the business with long-term goals, and long-term strategies.”