2021 Directory

BFPA In my Introduction to the BFPA in the last edition of the Directory I made reference to the fact the Association and its members were experiencing one of the most challenging economic periods in many years. We were in the throes of Brexit planning, the political landscape was unstable and the evolution towards integrated systems, which was gathering significant momentum, was placing members under ever more pressure to remain abreast of the technological trends at the time. It seemed unlikely that things could have been much more challenging, but little did we know that the COVID-19 pandemic was just around the corner. 2020 was, without doubt, the most life- changing period in the Association’s 62-year history and even made the depression of 2009 look relatively insignificant. Few have been spared from the disruption, sadness and indeed economic crisis accompanying the global pandemic. Yet, amid this distress, we have seen the absolute best coming from our BFPA community. We’ve seen compassion as members have sought to help each other and the heroic efforts of the NHS by providing PPE and ventilator technology. We’ve seen your ability to adapt to new ways of working and we’ve seen your resolve to keep moving forwards during a period when, for some, time seems to have all but stopped. As we start to emerge from this dark tunnel, there ismuch optimismgoing forwards. 2021 will hopefully be the year that the enormously successful vaccination campaignwill bear fruit andmembers are reporting that enquiry pipelines and business are actually very healthy indeed. Over the past 12 months, the BFPA, like its members, has also had to adapt its way of working and I hope you have seen the many ways in which the Association has sought to stay ‘in-step’ with members and continue to meet their needs. Also, like many of you, we have had to make overhead cuts and savings where we can. Indeed, some of the projects that we had planned in 2020 had to be postponed and as we are already half way through 2021 some are still in pending. However, we have continued to maintain a strong membership service and I hope that you have witnessed the various ways in which we have sought to support our members through this tough period. Our ever-growing trainingwas the first thing to be hit, but we have now adapted and introduced a growing suite of on-line training courses tomeet member demands. We have continued to develop our quality schemes such as the Hose Accreditation Scheme; we have continued to deliver market statistics to help members benchmark themselves in the wider industry context; we have introduced new webinars on topics requested bymembers such as staff wellbeing andwelfare and sales management and training – and, like our members, we havemade full use of themany video platforms to continue with our meetings during remote working – not least of all the Technical Standards Committeemeetings. It is true to say that member engagement has never been greater and longmay it continue. I ampersonally indebted to themanymembers whomaintained a steady streamof queries relating to both the pandemic and Brexit, which of course resulted in the establishment of the COVID-19 and the Brexit Bulletins, both of which have (at the time of this publication), nowpassed their 80th editions. I have referenced several clichés in this message, so I hopeyouwill forgiveme if I use onemore; ‘When thegoinggets tough – the toughget going!’ Yes, I know it is ‘corny’ and ‘old- hat’, but as youwill haveheardme saymany times, clichés areonly clichés because theyare generally true.When I lookat howBFPA members havenavigated theirway through the past year andon into2021 I havenohesitation in branding them ‘tough’ and theyare certainly ‘gettinggoing’.We shouldbeproudof our sector. YourAssociationwill continue tobewithyou every step of the way as wemove ontowhat Churchill described as ‘brighter uplands’. An introduction to the BFPA 12 www.bfpa.co.uk By Chris Buxton, Director & CEO, the British Fluid Power Association. Karen Gordon-Brander karen@bfpa.co.uk Administrative and Training Co-ordinator 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 and Training Director