Supporting current and future global business operations
Founded in 1986, the BBI Group offers a portfolio of products and services for the global diagnostic and
life science markets. The company originally developed and manufactured its world-renowned gold
nanoparticles and supplied them to the electron microscopy industry. It has since grown its portfolio
and supplies gold reagents, antibodies, antigens, enzymes, serum and plasma, and cell culture
reagents as well as offering antibody development services, lateral flow assay development and
manufacture.
Collinson Grant has been working with the BBI Group since its acquisition by Exponent Private Equity
in late 2015, supporting various initiatives to improve operational capability and business performance.
Our early work focused on improving efficiency in the existing network of manufacturing operations in
the UK, Sweden and South Africa, and on helping the business meet more stringent regulatory
compliance standards.
As a critical step in its strategic plan and to compete more effectively in key markets in Europe, USA
and China, BBI Group decided to invest in a new Global Headquarters, with the aim of centralising its
manufacturing and development activities from sites in Blaenavon, Cardiff and Dundee onto one new
state of the art facility in Crumlin, South Wales. Collinson Grant was asked to review the management
of the programme to ensure that it met its objectives and that the new site would start operations on a
sound footing. We provided a senior consultant to oversee the programme, to establish and manage
an appropriate control framework and to strengthen overall governance. This work extended into a
more fundamental review of how BBI Group managed its strategic projects and how the corporate
Programme Management Office (PMO) should be configured and resourced.
Once production had commenced in the new facility, we provided additional interim management
support to co-ordinate and report on the performance of all group-wide operations. We also set out a
programme of work to ensure that the cost benefits anticipated from the consolidation of activities in
Crumlin were realised. The scope of this exercise was:
- to assess labour utilisation and productive capacity, including the methods currently used to
determine requirements - to analyse the organisational structure for operations, including the reporting layers and spans
of control - to provide a single view of the baseline of costs, against which benefits could be measured
- to determine the size of the organisation in operations – both with and without changes in
working practices and associated improvements in direct labour productivity.
This initiative was followed up with more detailed implementation support on operational methods and
the adoption of lean practices. The outputs of our work also contributed to the development of a future
Target Operating Model (TOM) for the business and a more integrated approach to sales and
operational planning (S&OP).
Mario Gualano, Group Chief Executive, BBI Group added “Collinson Grant was an invaluable asset in
the move to our new Global Headquarters. The team helped not only with day-to-day operational
management but also ensured that we had a sound model for future operations and specific
recommendations to optimise our structure and labour requirements.”