Latest News

Contract Award – Trocars at BMI

Cory Bros have recently been awarded a 50% share of the trocar contract with BMI (part of the General Healthcare Group).

BMI are the UK’s largest healthcare provider with 49 hospitals nationwide.

This 2/3 year award was made on the basis of product quality, technical knowledge and support as well significant commercial advantages and is the culmination of a very close, long term partnership.

Contract Award – Nuffield Hospital Group

Cory Bros have recently been awarded the following products on a sole supplier basis by the Nuffield Hospital Group:

Laparoscopic Suction & Irrigation Sets
Fog Free
Sharps Safety Stations
Light Handle Covers
Cory Slings
Tip Cleaners
Swab Bags

These awards were made on the basis of product quality, supplier support and cost effectiveness.

Company Question and Answer

Obs & Gynae Product News November 2006

Interview with Robert Sharpe, Managing Director of Cory Bros

OGPN: How long have you been with the company?
RS: All my working life – 21 years.

OGPN: What made you choose a career in this industry?
RS: Cory Bros is a family business & one that I wanted to be involved with since I was a child.

OGPN: What is your professional background?
RS: I have an Honours Degree in Business.

OGPN: What was your job before this one?
RS: I worked my way up through various elements of the business from 1985 until I purchased the company outright in 1994.

OGPN: What are your plans for the future?
RS: In the next 2 – 3 years we plan to:

gradually extend our product ranges
further improve our manufacturing efficiencies
continue to develop & expand our international operations &
significantly increase our presence in the UK laparoscopy market

OGPN: What do you think your experience can do to advance the interests of the company?
RS: We have rapidly developed from being a quite vulnerable UK distributor, reliant on overseas companies for our products & services, to that of a vertically integrated domestic & international manufacturing & sales & marketing company. Our recent experiences have removed all barriers (logistic & psychological) that may have in the past prohibited us from developing the company & our personnel to their true potential.

OGPN: Do you find your job rewarding and if so how?
RS: Extremely rewarding & exciting, if you strip out the important but mundane tasks we all have to do every day. Being an integral part of the transformation of this company over the last 12 years – particularly the last six, has been a great experience.

From the depths of despair in 1998/1999 when distribution agencies were being lost due to major changes in the corporate structure of healthcare companies, to the development of our own, unique products & the expansion in to international markets, the last few years have been extremely challenging. Add to that the investment, both financial & in terms of time & energy to develop a manufacturing company from scratch, has also been incredibly stimulating for everyone connected with the group.

OGPN: Does your job involve a lot of travelling?
RS: It has done since 2000 with the creation of our international business. I have a young family & I don’t like being away from home but in order to get a business up & running you have to have the personal touch. This has meant meeting, appointing, training & supporting new distributors. We now have over 80 distributors in around 60 countries & thankfully we have a superb international division that has taken a lot of the travelling requirement off my shoulders in the last year or so.

That said, I still like to participate in our major international exhibitions at Medica, Arab Health & the ESGE & I also enjoy meeting up with our key distributors at their place of business.

My next major project in the coming months is to spend time in Italy, appointing several new regional distributors who will be responsible for promoting our products on a localised basis. But with the summer approaching & the prospect of doing some business with some very friendly & courteous Italians, things aren’t so bad!

OGPN: How did the company begin and how long has it been running?
RS: I’d love someone to be able to tell me. We have traced Cory Bros back to the turn of the 20th century – before WWI.

Back then, advertisements for the company’s products appeared in the Times & Suffragette newspapers. I believe it was founded by two or more Cory brothers but I can’t be sure.

Modern day Cory Bros began in 1969 when my father, who is a pharmacist, purchased a retail pharmacy in central London & attached to it was Cory Bros who supplied local hospitals with a few medical items.

When termination of pregnancy was legalised in the early 1970’s, one of the first specialist clinics in the area asked my father to supply them with medicines from his pharmacy & also to source equipment, instruments & consumables for uterine aspiration. This product range remains the cornerstone of our business today, as we remain the largest UK manufacturer / supplier of T.O.P consumables with the only truly “closed system” for uterine aspiration.OGPN: Where is the company based?RS: In 2004 we built a new head office in Shenley, Hertfordshire which is just inside the M25 between the junctions for the A1 & M1. It’s a barn conversion & regardless of the season it is a lovely place to work. This meant moving our warehouse from north London to our expanded 50,000 sq ft production facility just outside Taunton in Somerset.

OGPN: Does your company have branches abroad?
RS: We don’t have our own branches or offices as our preferred method of supplying a market is to work in close partnership with local distributors.

We haven’t forgotten our roots as a UK distributor & we know that if you select the right distributor, their ability to support their local customer base is often significantly superior to the multi-national competition.

Our job is to ensure that they have everything that they need to be active, professional & competitive.

OGPN: What is the company focus and what do you offer the Gynaecology industry?
RS: We currently have six distinct product ranges:

Uterine Aspiration Essentials
Laparoscopic Essentials
Trocar Essentials
Safe Sharps Management Products
Theatre Essentials
Tubing Essentials

The first three are heavily focussed on our activities in gynaecology & Gynaecologists & their teams are where we spend most of our time.

OGPN: How many employees do you have?
RS: About 90, including: manufacturing, distribution, customer service, administration, sales & management.

OGPN: Who are your customers and what products/services do you offer them?
RS: Our focus is in Theatre – primarily in gynaecology but also in general surgery. We feel that it is essential to support & inform the entire surgical team with whatever products we are focussing on at the time.

Our major emphasis in the recent past & in the next few years will be in laparoscopy. We have developed our own excellent product range of single-use instrumentation that for too long has been out of the financial reach of many surgical teams.

Being a medium sized company, with far lower overheads than many large & multi-nationals allows us to be proactive but also quick to respond to the needs of the market.

Right now, everyone is telling us that they need good quality, competitively priced trocars, scissors, suction / irrigation etc. & we are ideally placed to supply them with exactly what they require.

OGPN: What is your most popular product/service and why do you think that is?
RS: Historically it has been the area of uterine aspiration. Cory Bros is probably best known for this. We were the first company in the UK to introduce single use Vacurettes & Collection Sets. More recently we have added our Specimen Cups & our unique 900cc & 1800cc canisters with integral tissue filters that facilitate the first truly “closed system” for uterine aspiration.

In the last few years we have developed a comprehensive laparoscopic product offering – most recently with the introduction of our trocars, which will form the basis of our development plans over the next five years.

OGPN: How do you keep up to date with changes in the market?
RS: Our senior management team is relatively young (I’m 43) & highly ambitious. Our management structure has few tiers & our communication from bottom up & top down is very fluid. We actively encourage our sales people & customers to provide us with ideas & to work closely with us.

At the moment I am personally working on a couple of interesting projects with an eminent gynaecologist that should come to fruition in early 2007.

OGPN: Do you have any new products on the horizon?
RS: Yes we do. In the first quarter of this year we have introduced:

5mm x 32cm, L hook, J hook & Spatula tip Monopolar Electrodes
3mm x 45cm L Hook & Needle point Insert Electrodes that are used with our Suction / Irrigation Sets.
5mm x 32cm Soft Tip Blunt Dissector.

In September we will be launching our own range of mesh for both gynaecological & general surgery applications.

OGPN: Do you foresee much expansion in the coming years?
RS: Yes. I would be disappointed if we do not double our sales in the next 5 – 6 years. This will be derived from significant growth from our existing ranges domestically & internationally & also new product introductions.

OGPN: How do you advertise your products?
RS: The traditional ways, by field activity, congresses & exhibitions, direct advertising in this journal & the AfPP in the UK & also via regular mail-shots. We simply try to be a little more creative & eye-catching than most.

What is becoming more & more effective for us is word of mouth. Much of our new business is derived from referrals from one satisfied customer to the next & this is particularly gratifying because it means that we have good products, good prices & are doing a good job.

OGPN: What makes you different from your competitors?
RS: It is several things, some subjective, others objective. Subjectively, we encourage a very positive & forward thinking working environment for everyone within the group. We’re very serious about our business but we’re equally serious about having fun whilst at work.

Framing ongoing development in this positive context makes swift change that much easier.

Objectively, we identify opportunities in the market that are not being serviced as well as they should. Either the products available from other companies require improvement or the prices they charge are unnecessarily high, rendering them unaffordable for many who would like to use them.

Another major advantage we have over virtually every other manufacturer or distributor is our ability to supply any combination of our products, in either one sterile package or in a customised box kit. This facility has a number of significant benefits:

it simplifies purchasing enabling the Supplies Department to order a number of products from one source.
it dramatically reduces order processing costs
Theatre staff benefit from reduced and simplified set up times
all the products in the kits are fully compatible with each other
there is significantly less packaging waste and storage space is minimised
specific procedural kits can be created with minimal volume commitments (as low as 50 units – subject to what is included)
significant budgetary savings can be realised as a result of the hospital developing a single source purchasing strategy for products that they may well be purchasing from five or six different companies

OGPN: What technological innovations have you introduced?
RS: In the last few years it has been the unique “closed system,” for uterine aspiration & a range of Safe Sharps Management products for scrub nurses to prevent unnecessary stick injuries. In the past we introduced the Falope Ring, Filshie Clip, Tripolar Forceps and single use diathermy pads in the UK.

That said, we now focus on putting our own unique twist on an existing idea. Either improving certain aspects of it for the clinician, or making it more cost effective.

OGPN: How successful have you been to date?
RS: That’s a tough one. In terms of re-defining Cory Bros from being a UK distributor of other company’s products to a fully fledged manufacturer with a thriving domestic & international business, we have been extremely successful.In terms of developing some fantastic new products, perfectly positioned in the current market, I would say that we’ve also been very successful.

What has frustrated me a little is that our current identity has yet to be fully recognised. I suppose having spent 30 years from 1970 - 2000 selling other manufacturer’s products in the UK, creating a distinctive Cory Bros identity is virtually impossible in a relatively short time scale. This is why we have worked hard on this over the last few years & our efforts are increasing – particularly in the use of the colour purple in our products, advertising & branding.

When we come close to accomplishing this we will be able to truly fulfil our potential.

OGPN: How are you committed to quality?
RS: This is an issue very close to everyone’s heads & hearts at Cory Bros. It is our view that unless quality remains the number one priority that governs every aspect of what we do, there is little or no prospect of long term success.

It is as much about getting things right as how you deal with something when it goes wrong. No company in any industry in the world can manufacture 100% perfect product, 100% of the time. In saying that we are extremely proud that in a typical month we get reports of two or three non-conforming products from the 400,000 that leave our production facility.

OGPN: How important is good customer relations?
RS: This is our second priority just after maintaining the highest quality standards possible.

Selection of the right, positive, willing & empathetic people, whether they be in production, sales or customer service is critical. Giving them the best training we can so that they can do their jobs successfully & convincingly is also very important.

Although I consider Cory Bros to be a truly contemporary & forward thinking company, some of the more traditional business principals remain key to our organisation; “The Customer is King” remains one of these.

Cory Bros
2 Chestnut House
Farm Close
Shenley, Hertfordshire
WD7 9AD

Tel: 01923 839333
Fax: 01923 839444
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Web: www.corybros.co.uk