Launched with a Vision 50 Years Ago in an Office Basement, Advanced Instruments Today is a World Leader in Diagnostic Testing Systems
With an investment of $5,000 and an office in the basement of his home, Bud Wiggin founded Advanced Instruments 50 years ago this year, launching what is today a worldwide supplier of diagnostic testing systems for dairy, medical and industrial laboratories.
Norwood, MA (PRWEB) June 20, 2005 -- With an investment of $5,000 and an
office in the basement of his home, Bud Wiggin founded Advanced Instruments 50
years ago this year, launching what is today a worldwide supplier of diagnostic
testing systems for dairy, medical and industrial laboratories.
Since the
company’s incorporation in May 1955, Advanced Instruments has pioneered the
measurement of osmolality in the clinical lab and today the company’s osmometers
are in hospital clinical labs throughout the world.
When Wiggin, who died
in 2003, started the company in his eastern Massachusetts home, he used $2,000
of his own money and $3,000 from two silent partners, says Ken Micciche,
Advanced Instrument’s director of marketing.
“At the time of the
company’s founding, people said the technology would be gone in 10 years,”
Micciche says. “Here we are 50 years later, selling more and more
instruments.”
From the beginning, Wiggin was determined to build his
company into a substantial enterprise; one that sold “more and more instruments”
and one that provided balanced growth, opportunity and market
leadership.
Among Wiggin’s first business decisions, and as it turned out
a perceptive one, was to obtain a worldwide distributorship for the cryoscope,
or freezing-point apparatus, for which in 1955 there was a good but very narrow
market among nephrologists.
Today, Advanced Instruments is the world’s
foremost authority for the application of freezing point depression technology.
The company designs and implements automated systems that help its customers
improve productivity and product quality, meet regulatory requirements and
reduces unnecessary operating expenses.
“We continue to lead the
freezing-point osmometer market and continue to grow our product portfolio to
further strengthen our position in clinical, industrial and dairy lab
settings,”Micciche says.
Paying attention to the market, meeting customer
needs and developing innovative technologies have been and continue to be
hallmarks of the company’s long life, growth and success.
The company’s
mission is to provide creative solutions for common laboratory problems, and
laboratory professionals look to Advanced Instruments for exceptional customer
support and leading edge tools for the diagnostic laboratory.
“What it
really comes down to is our ability to provide technical after-sales support,
application support and field services, whether direct through us or through our
authorized distribution network to the customers,” Micciche says. “When our
customers have problems, Advanced Instruments is able to address them and
satisfy our customers’ needs.”
While the customers’ needs have been a top
concern, Advanced Instruments also has been nimble in deploying a measured
acquisition strategy to grow the company. In 1967, for example, Advanced
Instruments acquired Fiske Associates, the designer and builder of the world’s
first thermister-based osmometers and cryoscopes. All Fiske freezing-point
instruments use state-of-the art microprocessor technology and are backed by
Fiske’s award winning Hotline® Service and Customer Care Team.
The
purchase of Spiral Biotech Inc. in 1998 was another significant Advanced
Instruments acquisition. Spiral Biotech first commercialized the technique of
spiral plating and has focused on automating the pre-analytical and analytical
steps involved with traditional microbial enumeration.
As the company has
grown through acquisition and innovative technologies, Advanced Instruments
continued supporting its customers and aggressively staying ahead of the
technology curve. It has been responsible for a broad range of industry
milestones during the past 50 years.
Among them:
- Pioneering use of
osmometry in a clinical setting via educational seminars and physician
training.
- Inventing the rapid phosphatase method for determining proper
pasteurization in milk products and proper cooking in meat, poultry and
shellfish products.
- Introducing a novel means of counting cancer cells in
agar, dramatically reducing manual labor and increasing sensitivity.
-
Combining freezing point technology with the automated analyte test system for
use by pharmaceutical/biotechnology laboratories.
“We have stayed in the
forefront of the technologies that have enabled us to maintain market
leadership,” Micciche says. “The reason any company stays in business for 50
years is that it produces something of value and quality for its customers. We
have added to the product portfolio and that has given us greater opportunity to
grow the revenue steam. But, at the end of the day, we are in business because
we take care of our customers.”
About Advanced Instruments
Founded in
1955, Advanced Instruments, Inc. is a leading supplier of analytical instruments
and test kits for the food, dairy, and industrial microbiology markets. Based in
Norwood, Massachusetts, USA, the company also produces Fiske® Associates brand
diagnostic instruments and operates Spiral Biotech, Inc., and Delta Instruments
as wholly-owned subsidiaries. A worldwide network of direct sales people and
independent distributors supports Advanced Instruments’ products. The company
can be found online at http://www.aicompanies.com/ or contact customer service at
800-225-4034 or +1-781-320-9000.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/6/prweb251222.htm