The embryonic Aber Instruments was formed in 1986 by the Founders Bob Todd, Douglas Kell, John Williams and Barry Wise. Starting out in the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) with links to the University of Aberystwyth, it moved to its own premises in 1988 and became an independent business creating instrumentation that accurately measures live cell concentration.
Since then, Aber Instruments has grown from the original 4 Founders to 92 employee-owners today. The business now has three buildings on the Aberystwyth Science Park and a subsidiary in Alexandria, USA. The bulk of the employee owners are local to Aberystwyth, with a number of remote workers farther afield across the UK and US.
At Aber Instruments they pride themselves in their Welsh roots and have instilled this in their Governance documents, which state that the heart of Aber Instruments will always remain in Aberystwyth. Today they sell their instrumentation across the globe to the biotech and brewery industry leaders, and remain the world’s most trusted cell capacitance measurement solution – all from facilities in Mid Wales.
Aber became officially employee owned in 2011, one of the first Welsh businesses to do so. From the outset, their Founders held equality, trust and fairness at the heart of the business. This outlook aligned beautifully with what they thought Employee Ownership could look like at Aber Instruments – embodying their principles, ethos and values to ensure the business remained resilient and viable into the future, long after they had retired.
An Employee Owner at Aber commented:
“Employee Ownership is central to everything that Aber Instruments does and stands for. A focus on employee welfare, ethical business practices, and a belief in reward and responsibility sharing bring us all together to create a company that not just performs well, but excels.”
