Leeds Beckett University is leading a new partnership with pioneering Welsh manufacturer ABER Instruments to apply academic expertise in management and business process to support the company’s growth and future ambitions.
ABER Instruments Ltd is a global company supplying advanced systems for use in the Brewing, Biorenewables and Biotech industry. Formed in Aberystwyth in 1988, ABER started life as a university spin-out and, in 2011, became an employee-owned company.
ABER has experienced rapid growth and is now making the transition from being a small niche manufacturer to becoming a medium-sized company with a larger value proposition. Their customers now include some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical and brewing companies – including Glaxo SmithKline and Heineken. The company recognises the need to review and adapt its structures and management processes to ensure it is fit for sustainable growth, whilst retaining its employee-owned status.
ABER will be working with academic experts from both Leeds Beckett University and the University of Leeds on the two-year Management Knowledge Transfer Partnership (mKTP), which is led by Leeds Beckett and co-funded by UKRI through Innovate UK and the Welsh Government.
Dr Catherine Ashworth, Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Leeds Beckett University and academic project leader, explained: “ABER is a rapidly growing company – with many opportunities to develop and innovate new products, to diversify and expand into new markets. The company wants to achieve a position where they have a pro-active plan for innovation and sustainable growth that fits with their distinct values as an EO business. We are delighted to be working on this mKTP with Professor Andrew Robinson at the University of Leeds – a leading international expert in EO.
“The aim of the project is to provide ABER with the knowledge to transition into a more structured and sustainable growth-oriented business. We will equip them to make strategic decisions based on long-term market opportunities that also have the capability of internationalisation, adding resilience and sustainability to navigating growth, whilst retaining the unique aspects of ABER’s EO culture.”
