‘There was a real scavenger hunt for PPE – it was hectic’
Lennox Laboratory Supplies is a firm that’s been ‘on a journey’
FOR almost 100 years Lennox, an Irish company that specialises in supplying scientific, industrial and laboratory goods, has sold products into “anywhere that has a lab”.
From frontline workers to jewellers, pharma multinationals and schools, the business can provide an A-to-Z of items needed, whether it is air clearer recirculators, microscopes or water analysis equipment, Lennox can supply it.
While business has been steady down through the years, the Covid-19 pandemic turned things upside-down overnight, with demand for its personal protective equipment (PPE) sky-rocketing.
In response to the requests, the Dublin-based firm is mobilising to deliver up to 100,000 units a week.
Leading the response to that demand for the company is Leslie Brett, a native of Kinvara, in County Galway.
“We always sold PPE as part of our portfolio, you need it in a laboratory,” the mother of two explains. “From March, it has been really, really busy, we just all pulled together as a team. When companies started to contact us for PPE we got up and running. We probably increased our range of PPE products by about 50pc,” Brett says.
In order to manage the massive increase in volumes and ensure security when scouring stock, the company has shortened international supply chains.
“We’ve partnered with different companies in Ireland, but then we had to look to Europe,” Brett says.
“We sourced from Portugal and we have a strong partnership with a company in Germany, and they were a huge source of product for us.”
In addition, Lennox acquired supplies of PPE in China, where “we follow the product right through”, ensuring the quality was of the highest standard.
But it has not been easy, and much of the hard work in sourcing additional PPE has been done over many “extra hours, weekends and bank holidays”, says Brett, who prior to the pandemic spent her spare time golfing, walking and enjoying the local restaurants of Dalkey.
Founded by four businessmen in
1923, Lennox, which employs 60 people, benefits by hiring workers who have a science or technology background.
“If you ring us, from our customer services to our sales team or technical services team, they all either have some kind of science or engineering qualification or have a history of working in that arena, so you are talking peer-to-peer,” Brett, herself a biochemistry graduate, says.
“What we found was that companies coming to us felt they could trust us, and they appreciated the level of expertise that we had. So yes, we have benefited significantly from [Covid].”
Given the scramble across the globe to acquire PPE and the limited supply, there must have been a temptation to hike prices? Not for Lennox, according to Brett.
“To me, this was a crisis that we were all involved in. And while yes we have to make a profit – we are a commercial organisation – we were very keen to make sure we just did what we would always do, so pre-Covid and post-Covid we didn’t change our pricing strategy.”
In the early months of the pandemic the demand for PPE “was hectic”.
Now the pressure is easing as things slowly return to some form of normality.
“[Initially] there was a real scavenger hunt for it. Now as people are going back to work, I won’t say it’s calmer, but the perspective has changed. There’s more product out there now, people are just making sure they have the right PPE for employees when they come back to work,” Brett says.
A graduate of biochemistry from NUI Galway, Brett was one of only “about two or three” from her secondary school class, which graduated in 1981, to go to university.
Back then there was no honours maths offered in her school and career options centred around working in a bank, becoming a teacher or doing nursing.
“And none of those really appealed to me,” Brett says.
Upon finishing university, Brett’s first role was working as a research assistant in the department of biochemistry in NUIG.
“[But] research and science work in the lab was not my forte… I realised really quickly that sales was probably a better place for me.”
Since the early 1990s Brett has worked in various sales roles, joining international healthcare company Baxter after she got married as a sales rep for nutrition in Dublin.
“From there I progressed through the company, I was promoted several times and left Baxter [in 2015] as a business unit director for their blood products.”
The following year Brett joined Lennox, taking the top role as managing director.
While Covid has provided much opportunity for the company, which last year recorded turnover of €13.5m, it has not all been plain sailing.
“I think we’re seeing the early warning signs of the market contracting. What our customers are telling us is they’re not cancelling projects but they are definitely postponing them.
“There is a lot of talk about things going to happen in September or things that have moved to early next year, that is definitely a challenge for us. While our PPE part is a success, our other business has quietened down but it hasn’t gone away,” Brett adds.
Since taking over at the helm of Lennox, the company has been “on a journey”, she says.
“There’s been a huge amount of change, and a lot of work has been put into modernising the company and the practices, and that was my remit from the board. Just before I joined I was made aware of the fact that we lost a significant supplier, which was a huge part of our turnover.
“So, we sat back and took the opportunity to look at the company in terms of our systems, our capabilities. Thankfully we were in a good financial position and we invested €2m in turning the company around.”
The benefits are already
‘While we have to make a profit, we were very keen to make sure we did what we always do’
starting to show and last year turnover was around €13.5m. In addition, losses at the group have steadily declined.
“Now we’re in the futurebuilding phase, and we’re taking the company to a different place,” Brett says.
The market is consolidating, something Brett views as an opportunity for the business.
In addition, the pandemic will result in companies being “more conscious of safety and security of supply”.
“I know in the past everyone was about lean operations and just in time, I think, now there’s an attitude of ‘just in case’,” she says.
“How long that lasts, I don’t know, but I think people will be more cognisant.”
‘Now we’re in the futurebuilding phase, taking Lennox to a different place’