Arran: I recently went on my first overseas trip since joining Asynt and it was quite an experience!
In this blog I thought I’d give you a whistle-stop tour of mine, Martyn Fordham and Dr Kerry Elgie’s immensely enjoyable and highly productive trip to visit with two of our suppliers in Germany; Huber and IKA.
The trip started with a brisk 4am alarm for a novel traffic-free journey down to Heathrow. After swiftly making our way through terminal 5 we set off to Basel, Switzerland. We departed on the French side, crossing the border to Germany en route to Staufen to visit our friends at IKA. I was rather confused, having travelled across three countries in a matter of a few short hours but we ended up at the right place so we were all happy!
The three of us were treated to a full tour of the facilites and a wonderful lunch so that we were mentally ready for some intense product training on IKA’s newest products. Our brains were still ready to explode (in a good way!) despite all the food!
(Top: The Asynt team with Markus Winter, IKA Bottom: The Asynt team with Daniel Huber, Huber)
At the end of the day we packed up our notes and travelled to Offenburg where we indulged in some traditional Germany cuisine for dinner before turning in early so as to be ready for our day at Huber HQ which would begin bright and early the following morning.
More excellent product training, tours of the Huber facilities and productive discussions ensued and really rounded off a fantastic trip. We worked our way back through to the French border to fly back to the UK from Switzerland to arrive home in need of sleep (and possibly some exercise after all the great food!) and very keen to share all the knowledge our hosts imparted!
Many thanks to everyone we met, and who helped make this important visit a reality!
Dr Arran Solomonsz