We at Don Whitley Scientific Limited develop, manufacture and sell instrumentation and associated products for microbiological and other scientific applications. We also provide microbiological contract services in our GLP-compliant laboratories. Based in Shipley, West Yorkshire in the UK, Don Whitley Scientific is an independent, family owned business. Founded by Don Whitley in 1976, we have rapidly grown to be a leading supplier of innovative equipment and a leading microbiology contract house. We sell to both public and private sectors internationally.

The company enjoys a wealth of experience in microbiology, design, engineering and marketing. These skills amply demonstrate our ability to design and manufacture a range of high quality and often ingenious equipment specified by scientists throughout the world. In recognition of these achievements we received Millennium Product status for two products – the Whitley range of anaerobic and variable atmosphere workstations, and the WASP spiral plater. Millennium Products were the UK national initiative to identify and promote innovation through new products and services created in Britain for the millennium. Millennium Products were selected because they were forward-thinking, challenging, creative and innovative.

A key factor in our success has been a consummate pride in offering customers a professional and efficient service. This awareness of customers and their needs prompted investment in improved service back-up and the construction of a suite of microbiology laboratories, enabling the company to work even more closely with the microbiology industry.

We currently sell a range of microbiology and tissue culture products to customers in more than 40 countries. We specialise in providing automated solutions for the detection and enumeration of micro-organisms. Our customers include quality assurance personnel, food producers, public sector microbiologists, clinical microbiologists and researchers. Our latest products are a range of workstations in which oxygen and CO₂ can be controlled to levels as low as 0.1%. These products are specifically targeted at cell culture, cancer and heart research work - in short, anyone wanting to carry out research under varying oxygen and CO₂ tensions.

We have developed a leading position in selected markets by producing quality products fully supported by excellent service and support. In the UK, Australia and Germany products are sold directly by our wholly owned subsidiary companies. In other parts of the world, our products are sold through exclusive agreements with carefully selected distributors.

The contract microbiology services are handled directly from the Shipley laboratories. The research studies embrace all aspects of antimicrobial development programmes including efficacy, safety and clinical trial studies with an increasing emphasis on antimicrobial resistance work. Our laboratories also have extensive experience in working within the animal feed industry as well as with the medical device, textile and chemical industries. Due to the increasing demand for microbiology consultancy services a sister company, MB Consult Limited, has been formed to handle this aspect of the business.

Research and development

The company’s research and development activities are focused on the enhancement of existing technologies and the development of novel automated products and associated after-sales services. In-house design and development skills are complemented by the use of external design expertise. In 1992 we won a UK Department of Trade and Industry competitive SMART award for the development of a truly rapid microbiological sensor for use in on-line monitoring.

A further SMART award was won during 1993 to continue this project. In addition a UK Government grant was awarded by the Support for Products Under Research (SPUR) scheme in 1992 to develop impedance applications. A further SPUR award was received in 1995 to partially fund an extensive R&D initiative targeted at increasing our understanding of anaerobic organisms.

This programme resulted in the development of the Whitley Workstation product range and, as a result of the successful commercial exploitation of this research, we won a prestigious SMART winners award in 1999. Research and Development funding is currently equivalent to approximately 15% of turnover.

This above average investment has enabled us to use our experience of atmosphere control to and develop a new workstation for a whole new market sector – the tissue culture industry. Our product, the Hypoxystation, makes it possible to create any given atmosphere (controlling the oxygen, carbon dioxide, temperature and humidity) yet still maintain a comfortable working environment. In developing this product we have utilised our knowledge of gas sensing technology and have become world leaders in providing solutions for truly accurate cell culture in vitro with conditions normally only found in vivo.

Our contract research business is also supported by a strong internal R & D programme which has focused on the development of in vitro model test systems relevant to the study of antimicrobial residues. This was extended to include an antimicrobial resistance development programme. Strong links have been and continue to be developed with public, private sector and university laboratories.

Company structure

Whilst the company can be divided into the listed functions of Sales, Production, Service, Laboratory, Product Development, Warehousing, Accounts and Administration each part makes up the whole and it is this team effort which provides our customers with quality products and services. We are committed to Total Quality Management and place a great deal of emphasis on training. We were granted Investors in People recognition in 1998 and achieved the quality standard ISO9001:2008 in 2009. Manufacture of Don Whitley Scientific products takes place at our headquarters in Shipley, UK.

Click here to download a copy of our ISO9001:2008 certificate

The Shipley site totals 3000m² and includes dedicated microbiology laboratories, a service support suite and new product development facilities thus concentrating all technical expertise on one site alongside the production, sales and administration functions.

Products and services

Innovative products for a range of scientific disciplines:

Service solutions include:

-  Contract microbiological services with GLP-compliant laboratories

-  Product support, as-required servicing, and comprehensive maintenance
   contracts are available for all the products that we supply

-  Our staff are qualified to provide UKAS accreditation and validation services