BFPA Directory 2019

BFPA As we go into BFPA’s 60th Anniversary year and ultimately into 2020 there has never been a more challenging environment for BFPA members both on a political, economic and even a technological basis. Brexit has introduced a previously unseen level of turbulence into the market and there are those who believe that it may take ten years before the UK economic climate settles down again. Against this background, the inexorable technological changes – especially around Industry 4.0 and Integrated systems technology – are placing ever greater demands upon member companies to review their product development strategy and ensure that they are aligned with these changes. In these challenging circumstances, the role of a successful and modern trade association should come to the fore. If the BFPA is to remain relevant to its membership, we need to provide a range of services that help our members to weather this turbidity and meet our often- stated mantra “to help our members improve their bottom line through either directly or indirectly helping them to sell more products and services”. In referring to the technical trends in our sector, they are becoming more and more cross-sectoral with process control and greater use of electronics in fluid power systems. This extrapolates towards an ever-growing trend towards combined fluid and electromechanical drive solutions and the all-pervasive move towards greater automation in all its many guises. In the same way that our members evolve with market demand, these changes also mean that the BFPA must constantly review its membership offering, and the members of the Executive are constantly examining their portfolio to ensure that they provide a suite of services that enable members to take full advantage of these evolving trends. As members, they look to BFPA for guidance on a host of issues from market intelligence, market analysis, technical guidance, information on regulatory issues both in the UK and the rest of Europe, networking and let us hope, from time to time, to take advantage of the various social events that punctuate the BFPA business calendar. At a commercial level, the gradual convergence and increased co-operative working between trade associations continues unabated. The BFPA would very much endorse this philosophy, especially as we migrate towards what is generic motion control rather than specifically hydraulics or pneumatics. Platforms like the UK Motion Control Alliance will surely begin to come into their own as this migration accelerates. Embracing this ethos also has great potential benefits in terms of the economies of scale that arise from using common resources. Against this background, the current staff within the BFPA continue to cover essentially six areas; Membership Services, Publicity Services, Technical Services, Regulatory and Lobbying Services, International Services and Exhibition Services. They do so from their wholly owned Oxfordshire premises in Chipping Norton. Members and non-members wishing to further their interest the BFPA can contact me on 01608 647900 or e- mail chrisbuxton@bfpa.co.uk . An introduction to the BFPA 10 www.bfpa.co.uk By Chris Buxton, Director & CEO, the British Fluid Power Association. Emma Lear emma@bfpa.co.uk Event Manager Karen Gordon-Brander karen@bfpa.co.uk Administrative Support Sarah Gardner sarah@bfpa.co.uk Statistics & Marketing Manager Yvonne Pearman yvonne@bfpa.co.uk Standards Project Manager Chris Buxton chrisbuxton@bfpa.co.uk Director & CEO, the BFPA Martin Kingsbury martin@bfpa.co.uk Membership Director