An impressive growth in turnover of 1,450 % between 1999 and 2001 enabled Abcam to scoop third place in the prestigious Fast 50 programme for the UK’s eastern region. The recruitment and hard work of a highly skilled workforce and the enormous market potential for antibody reagents created by the human genome project are noted by the company as two key reasons for its continued success.
Rapid business growth led the company to review and improve its web-based ordering and distribution process. Working with its existing logistics partner FedEx, a new automated system was developed that allowed Abcam’s customers to access all of FedEx’s services direct from Abcam’s website. While customers benefited from a faster, more streamlined order processing system, Abcam was able to increase shipping capacity by more than 300% without the need for additional manpower.
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Abcam integrates FedEx into internal shipping system
Jim Warwick joins Abcam as Technical Director.
Jim holds a degree in Computer Science from Christ’s College, Cambridge University. From 1986 to 2003 he worked for Analysys Ltd, a Cambridge based telecoms consultancy, heading up their IT, software and web development initiatives. During this period he also held a number of external non-exec directorships including Workbench Software Ltd, a start-up with a targeted software package for time recording systems and VBN Ltd, a web-based hosting company specialising in business cluster and innovation network solutions. Jim joined Abcam in 2001 as Technical Director, initially part time then full time from 2003. He has overseen the expansion of Abcam’s bespoke web-based systems.
The power and effectiveness of Abcam’s internet trading was again recognised, this time by the DTI’s UK Online for Business E-Commerce Awards 2001. The company’s “highly commended” position in the east region category led the judging panel to praise Abcam’s “exemplary use of electronic commerce”.
At the first attempt and despite its relative youth, Abcam was shortlisted as a finalist in the “Small Business of the Year” category at Cambridge Evening News’ Business Excellence Awards.
Eddie Powell joins Abcam as Finance Director.
Eddie gained a PhD in chemistry at Cambridge and then qualified in 1976 as a chartered accountant with Peat, Marwick, Mitchell (now KPMG) in London. He then worked for two years as a financial controller in Frankfurt, Germany. After returning to the UK he joined Marconi Instruments as financial controller, later Finance Director. Part of GEC, this was a £100 million sales high tech group with subsidiaries in six countries. In 1990 he moved to Colt, a £90 million turnover privately owned international light engineering group. He joined Abcam in March 2000 and continues to have the key role in the financial management of the company in order to allow it to achieve its strategic aims.
Eddie’s reasons for joining Abcam were that it was “An exciting opportunity to be in at the ground floor of a high-tech start-up company.”
Less than two years after its formation, there was sufficient confidence within the company to move from the University of Cambridge’s Bioincubator in the city centre to new, purpose-designed offices and laboratories on the Cambridge Science Park. The 2,200 sq ft facility provided a four-fold increase in laboratory space which was immediately put to good use purifying and characterising Abcam’s growing range of antibodies.
Eighteen months after its formation, Abcam won the first of many prestigious business awards. Given by Business Link for Cambridgeshire, the Profit by Design award was in recognition of the pioneering use of a website as a sales tool. At a time when only a handful of large, consumer-based “e-tailers” had recognised the future significance of e-selling, Abcam actively chose to use the internet to build a prosperous business selling antibodies to the research community worldwide. Company founder Dr Jonathan Milner commented at the time: “I want Abcam to be to antibodies what Amazon is to books”.
Over the past ten years a significant number of companies have been formed in and around Cambridge that share similar founding characteristics: strong links with the academic community, marketable science and technology and real entrepreneurial spirit. The emergence of these organisations led many to talk about the “Cambridge Phenomenon”. If such a phenomenon exists, Abcam was, and remains, one of its leading players.
In 1998 principal founder Dr Jonathan Milner was working as a post-doctoral research scientist at the University of Cambridge. But his work into the newly discovered breast cancer protein BRCA2 was seriously hindered due to a lack of good quality antibody reagents. Jonathan, along with other researchers, hit upon the idea for a company that would supply antibodies using the internet as a point of sale (the name Abcam is derived from Antibody {Ab} and Cambridge {cam}).
Soon after, Jonathan met with Cambridge telecoms entrepreneur Dr David Cleevely. David was sufficiently impressed with the idea to join with Jonathan and provide business expertise and capital to the fledgling company. By the summer of 1998 Jonathan was convinced at the viability of the business idea and the market potential for antibodies. He therefore decided to leave academia and concentrate on building the new company full time.
From the outset Abcam was clear about its market proposition: it would sell the best antibodies in the world with the most comprehensive, honest and up-to-date datasheets, coupled to fast delivery and exemplary customer service and technical support. These guiding principles are as valid today as they were then and have helped steer the company from a one-man start up to an international market leader in little over seven years.
Registered Office:
Discovery Drive, Cambridge
Biomedical Campus,
Cambridge, CB2 0AX, UK
+44 (0) 1223 696 000
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