ILS recovery plan on track
Temporary facility significantly increases in-house testing, and new laboratories are to be built
UK-based food and pharmaceutical testing specialist International Laboratory Services (ILS) says it has made further significant progress in its recovery plan following a major fire at its Shardlow, Derbyshire laboratories six months ago.
The contract laboratory services supplier has now established and equipped a further 600m2 of temporary space on-site, and having completed successful MHRA, UKAS, M&S and TLAS inspections, is now able to carry out increased food microbiology and pharmaceutical microbiology testing in-house.
The company’s Food Chemistry operations were unaffected by the fire and it was able to secure alternative facilities for its Pharmaceutical Chemistry business within its sister company at Shardlow, meaning that both of these operations have continued as normal over the past few months.
ILS has also confirmed that it has obtained planning permission for a complete rebuilding of its laboratories. Plans are currently being finalised and it is anticipated that work will be completed by December. The company will unveil further details in the coming weeks.
'Our immediate priority after the fire was to resume testing for our clients, either directly or using third parties, and then to implement structured short- and long-term recovery plans to bring us back to full operational strength,' says ILS Operations Director Lorraine Bater.
'The success and effectiveness of our efforts so far have been underlined by the fact that we are now continually being asked to speak on the topic and offer advice and guidance to our peers.
'But certainly we could not have achieved any of this without the hard work and dedication of all our staff, and the tremendous support of our clients and suppliers.'
