OpTIC Case Studies - Wrexham University

Success in business is decided by many factors, but being able to focus on your work without distractions is one of them. The OpTIC centre offers just that, a place to grow and develop your business with all the resources you need to hand. Many companies have done just this and gone on to greater things. A few of our success stories are highlighted below.

ADC BIO

ADCBIO is an innovative biotechnology company, developing new process technology to speed, simplify and significantly lower the production costs of the latest generation of anti-cancer blockbuster drugs – Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs). Formed in 2010, the Company commercialised and expanded its facilities at the OpTIC Technology Centre into an international centre of expertise in the process development and laboratory scale manufacture of ADCs.

ADCBIO chose to locate in Wales with the assistance of both regional and local grant support. OpTIC was specifically chosen due to the combination of business and funding support along with the infrastructure and facilities to enable them to expand.

ADCBIO’s Technical Director was the first employee to be located in OpTIC in 2010 renting a desk in a shared office and was able to secure funding for the technical and commercial feasibility study of ADCBIO’s Lock-Release technology. By 2011 with a £450,000 package of investment and grant funding from Acceleris, Finance Wales (now Development Bank of Wales), a Welsh Government R&D grant and a LIF (Local investment Fund) grant from Denbighshire County Council the company expanded in to a 52sqm space modified to comprise a lab and an office. This enabled the company to further develop the provision of its technology as well as provide technical and development services to pharmaceutical innovators of ADCs.

By 2013 and after a further investment and grant package of £600,000 , the company expanded into a further (60 sqm) lab. By 2015 another (93 sqm) lab was in operation and the number of staff had expanded to 13 skilled staff.

Encouraged by both customers for their services and an under capacity in the market for GMP manufacturing capability in ADC’s, the company during 2017 secured investment for the construction of an $11 million GMP bio-conjugation facility based in Deeside, North Wales, as well as a new R&D centre.

ADCBIO finally graduated from OpTIC in January 2019 to the new 6500 sqm facility in Deeside and have now increased their staff level to 50 highly skilled scientific jobs.

Charlie Johnson, CEO of ADC Bio commented: “I would like to thank the OpTIC Technology Centre and its staff for all of their help and assistance over the last 9 years. Time flies! One of the greatest challenges when creating and building a new company, particularly in the area of scientific innovation, is to find a suitable location that is capable of housing such companies as well as helping support their growth. The OpTIC Technology Centre gave ADCBIO all of that and we have more than exceeded our original goals for the business. Apart from being in a beautiful location the centre provided us with the necessary stability, space and cost effective services to support our growth. As a result of this success we ultimately needed to find our own dedicated home to move into the GMP manufacturing to allow us to provide our customers with a much expanded servicing offering. Thanks again.”

Kent Periscopes

Kent Periscopes (a Gooch & Housego company) was established in 2005 in response to an opportunity that arose, as a result of a restructuring of the supply-side of our market. Since then, we have extended our product and service capabilities. We have grown strongly and profitably from the outset, and with a growing order book we are now entering a phase of further investment and growth. From May 2010 to May 2015, we achieved 400% growth in revenue. We graduated from OpTIC in 2016 with 50+ employees but still remain on St Asaph Business Park.

OpTIC Technology Centre has helped us with:

Staff with optical experience
Suppliers
Technology advice
Design advice
Government support

Facilities & Services:

Right space – clean, compressed air, low vibration
Expertise on hand – optical design and interferometric test capability
Testing – metrology and thermal chamber
Flexibility to expand
Wrexham University links

“There’s no doubt the OpTIC Technology Centre has been a fundamental part of the successful growth of our company. In the past 3 years we’ve grown from under 20 to 50 people, and OpTIC has made it easy to accommodate this expansion. Its ability to respond quickly to our changing needs is vital to a growing company such as ours. OpTIC has provided us with the right facilities and services at the right time. The expertise and equipment on hand has been invaluable – such as optical design, lasers, metrology and a thermal chamber for testing. Also the business support, mentoring and networking made all the difference to us.

If you’re a growing technology company, it’s hard to find a facility and support offer like it across the region. I can’t recommend strongly enough to any business to consider locating yourself at the OpTIC Centre.

Let them take care of the factors that can slow a business down and focus your time on the important job of achieving your growth potential.”

John Oliver, Managing Director (until January 2017)