Looking back as we celebrate 21 years of business
As we reach our official ‘coming of age’ anniversary, Rhys looks back at how the company started and has grown over the years.
A Brief History of Feed4ward
I founded Feed4ward Control Ltd in 2003, driven by frustration with the automation company I had worked for over the previous four years. I believed I could offer superior automation solutions to customers.
Initially, I contracted with my former employer before moving onto project work for large contractors in the water industry. It was during this time that I connected with Trojan UV, a Canadian company providing innovative ultraviolet disinfection solutions. Their control products operated on Allen-Bradley PLCs. However, most UK and Irish water treatment companies preferred Mitsubishi or Siemens PLCs. My role involved creating custom variants of the control code for both types of PLCs.
As my work with Trojan UV began to slow down, I was introduced to Pall in Portsmouth. Pall are an international biopharmaceutical company specializing in filtration. It is here that I discovered column chromatography. Pall’s existing column operating system required an update, and the incumbent supplier was either unwilling or unable to undertake this task. I was called in for a six-week project, which blossomed into a fruitful ten-year relationship. It was during this time that Feed4ward grew. My first employee was a junior project engineer in 2012. Eventually this expanded to a team of ten engineers and administrative staff.
At Pall, we developed the AutoPak column packing system, an innovative method for packing, repacking, unpacking, and CIPing columns. Additionally, we developed the control systems for linear columns, transitioning from existing hydraulic columns to electrically driven ones.
Feed4Ward Now
I am proud to say that our control systems are now present in the clean rooms of all major pharmaceutical companies worldwide, spanning all continents except Antarctica.
Eventually, Pall was acquired by the Danaher Group. When Danaher went on to purchase GE Biopharma, the EU and US competition commissions required the divestment of Pall’s chromatography division.
In 2020, Sartorius Stedim purchased the chromatography division, including the column manufacturing that we supply. Since then, we have successfully partnered with Sartorius to produce industry-leading chromatography column packing solutions. It has been a collaboration that has made Sartorius Chomo columns the best in the world, and allowed Feed4ward to grow into the successful company that it is today.
The Feed4ward Future
Feed4ward is now a company of 10 people as we reach our 21st anniversary. Our future plan is to continue to grow with our current partners and to find new partners that share our values.
We intend to follow our vision, which is ‘Using the power of automation to create a more sustainable and efficient world, enriching humanity’. And we are certainly looking forward to the next 21 years.
