Cherwell rounds up 50th year with continued focus on customers, quality products and ambitious growth plans

Cherwell’s Agar Art Competition 2021 winning entries from summer & Christmas competitions.

Cherwell Laboratories, manufacturer of Redipor® prepared culture media, announces a successful conclusion to its Golden Anniversary Year of celebration which marked yet another year of growth for the long-standing company. Recognising the importance of customer care in its success, Cherwell sought to involve its customers in its 50th year celebrations. Activities included online Easter egg hunts, sales promotions and competitions, such as Cherwell’s inaugural Agar Art competition.

Cherwell’s agar art competition introduced a spot of culture to its celebrations, requiring budding artists to ‘grow their own’ works of art using a variety of microorganisms and culture media! This proved so popular in the summer that a Christmas follow up was also organised. A gallery of entries for both competitions is available to view on Cherwell’s website, congratulations to the winners, Megan W for her flowers in the summer competition and Caitlin L for creating a festive snowman. Cherwell planted a tree on behalf of everyone who entered with the National Trust and eforests. Given the artistic promise cultured in its anniversary competitions, Cherwell is now making plans for a 2022 competition.

Cherwell also highlighted its history and business success during its 50th year. From humble beginnings in 1971 as a small testing laboratory in Oxfordshire, to a manufacturer and supplier of cleanroom microbiology solutions with international customers across Europe and the Far East, Cherwell has certainly evolved and grown.

The Company’s distribution network for its Redipor microbiological culture media was further expanded internationally in 2021, by bringing on board specialist lab equipment distributor Ant Medikal in Turkey. Also joining Cherwell’s distribution network were AET in Norway - a leading supplier of products, services and solutions to laboratories, clean rooms and production companies – and Zellbio in Germany who are an independent organisation focusing on the demanding applications in the life-science market.

2021 also saw the addition of no less than 28 new products to Cherwell’s range of prepared media and environmental monitoring products. These included rectangular culture plates, and media including Nematode Growth Medium (NGM) and irradiated Brain Heart Infusion Agar.

In addition to an ever-growing customer base, with 62 new customers in 2021 alone, Cherwell also has a large body of long-term customers who wished the company well for its Golden anniversary, all echoing their appreciation of its customer service and quality products. “Happy Anniversary Cherwell! The 40-year affiliation between our companies speaks volumes for our long-standing working relationship centred on their excellent customer service. Cherwell are such a good company to work with because, even as demand for their products has grown, they have never lost focus - they do as they say and say as they do!” said Gabriel Reynolds, Sales Director, Davidson & Hardy (Laboratory Supplies) Ltd.

Andy Whittard, Cherwell’s Managing Director, commented and also recollected his father, Cherwell’s founder, Lawrence Whittard, who sadly passed away in autumn 2020, “A big thank you to all colleagues, past and present, and customers for all your support over the last 50 years. We truly believe our future is very bright and look forward to creating further milestones and memories over many more coming years by fully leveraging our five decades of experience and expertise in cleanroom microbiology.

As a business person my father was creative, determined and would never give up - a true entrepreneur. I think that he would have been extremely proud to see the business he started reach 50, particularly as I recently read that 95% of businesses never reach this key milestone, so I’m also proud to say that Cherwell is in a pretty elite group of companies.”