A 21st birthday is a momentous milestone, so that’s why the Woodley BioReg team went all out over the past year to celebrate the business “coming of age” and achieving 21 years of trading.
So, what have we been up to?
The start of our 21st year began in April 2021, when the UK was still subject to quite severe lockdown restrictions. Schools were still closed and many students were learning from home. To ensure that children from low income homes did not miss out, we donated 24 laptops to schools via Co-operative Care Colne Valley.
Following on in this altruistic vein, in June 2021 we also donated t-shirts to pupils at Gomersol Primary School to use in their art lessons. Despite being a company rooted in science, we strongly believe that getting in touch with your creative side is great for your mental health so we were pleased we could help these young people do just that.
In August 2021, our next adventure saw us scale one of Yorkshire’s finest peaks, Pen-y-Ghent, to raise vital funds for Macmillan Cancer Support — a charity that saw a hugely reduced amount of donations during the pandemic due to its normal fundraising events calendar being cancelled to promote social distancing. The team raised £450 in total, smashing their £250 target. Go team!
Giving back to the local community is part of our ethos, and as a company operating within the healthcare sphere, we decided to provide free first aid courses for local community groups and businesses.
We hosted two sessions in September 2021, which were very well attended, and extremely well received. And now the majority of our team are first aid trained, too — meaning we’re handy to have around in a crisis!
In January 2022 we also got the opportunity to sponsor local Skelmanthorpe United JFC Girls Under 16’s, as our CMC quality consultant, Michelle Hirst’s daughter Olivia plays for the team. We’re proud to support women’s grassroots football, and you never know – we could just be supporting a future Lioness in the making!
And of course we must mention here one of our biggest news stories to date — the launch of our Italian subsidiary and office in Milan on 1st April 2022. Brexit has meant more complexity for our clients looking to enter the EU market as our current head office is based in the UK, but now Woodley BioReg is pan-European – fantastico!
Let’s not also forget the people behind that scenes that make Woodley BioReg the business that it is – our team! The last year has seen the appointment of five key members of the WBR family.
Michael Li joined us in October 2021 as our programme director, swiftly followed by Neil Beaumont, our business development manager. Michael ensures that all our client projects run smoothly, to budget, and on time, while Neil uses his industry experience and contacts to make new connections, and manage new client expectations.
And in January 2022, marketing manager Kirstie Wilson officially joined the team, after two years of being Woodley’s external marketing consultant. Responsible for all things communications, Kirstie helps to spread the WBR message far and wide.
Shortly after, in February, Bryan Lister entered the fold as our senior regulatory consultant in medical devices and IVDs. Bryan’s appointment meant that we could take our devices offering to the next level, with his wealth of experience and depth of knowledge in the sector.
And most recently, in April 2022, Alison Moore joined our finance team — helping to keep us in the black and on track!
Finally, as the pièce de resistance, we decided a fresh new look and feel was needed to take us into the next decade of operation — so we appointed a local agency to develop a swish new website, alongside freshly developed content that really defines who we are, what we offer, and what value that we add as a business.
Launched last week, take a look at the new and improved Woodley BioReg online presence.
All in all, it has been an extremely eventful period celebrating our 21st birthday – with a mixture of giving back, growing, and redeveloping. But as most who know us understand, we never stand still, and look to achieve even more heading into our 22nd year and beyond!
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