The rewards and challenges of working in a small company
Nigel Corns' love of colours and dyes led him to a career as R&D chemist at a small company. Here, he talks about what he enjoys most about it.
What attracted you to chemistry?
When I was undertaking my A-levels, I had a summer job in a textile dyeing factory. I was fascinated by how white cloth could enter a dyeing machine and come out of the other end any colour of the rainbow, and I wanted to know how colour was made. It was that simple.
How did that experience lead you to where you are now?
After graduating from the University of Leeds with a degree and doctorate in colour chemistry, I worked for Holliday Dyes and Chemicals in Huddersfield. It was during those five years that I really learnt about the concepts of process scale-up. I then had the opportunity to move to a sister-company, James Robinson Ltd, which had just started manufacturing novel organic photochromic molecules. In ten years we ran over 150 novel synthetic steps through the facility with a very varied palette of chemical syntheses. I then returned to the lab as an R&D chemist. At about this time the company re-structured and was purchased by Vivimed Labs.
What does your work involve?
My job is very varied. I’m an R&D chemist and still love working at the bench whenever time allows. More recently I have spent a lot of time honing my analytical skills. I also standardise and create dye blends for some of our products, and it’s great to still apply what I was taught at university. On top of this, I manage the health and safety function within Vivimed Labs Europe. So a typical day can involve some, or all of these disciplines. I am also lucky enough to lecture annually on two courses relating to the scale-up of chemical processes at Leeds University.
What is working at a small to medium enterprise (SME) like?
I like that, because the company is small, our overall objectives are clear and there is great communication. There is a forward-looking atmosphere and colleagues genuinely try to help each other out when necessary. It is also a very fast-moving environment, and sometimes objectives can change at short notice. This can be frustrating, but eventually you have to say it is better if you hand over a project to someone else, simply because you don’t have the time to complete it to the desired standard in a sensible time-frame.
And what are the challenges that SMEs face?
REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) legislation is undoubtedly a challenge. I agree that the principle of REACH is laudable, however, this must be weighed against the necessary expense of seeking compliance with this legislation and the benefits of what it has superseded. Currently, it is sucking cash out of SMEs. We are simply spending money trying to maintain current product ranges or deciding that some products that the company has been selling for years without issue do not have the value for us to support them and so must be dropped. This ‘spend or cull’ cycle undoubtedly affects forward momentum.
How has connecting with the Royal Society of Chemistry benefited you and your organisation?
Vivimed joined EnterprisePlus, and this has been enlightening to us. For example, I have joined and used the EnterprisePlus group on social media. And I have become far more involved with the Royal Society of Chemistry, seeing how the organisation can help companies like Vivimed.
Through joining EnterprisePlus we were also able to apply for an industrial placement grant from the Royal Society of Chemistry. We were successful and will benefit from having been awarded one of these fully-funded studentships. A student will be able to join us for twelve months to work on the synthesis of state-of-the-art organic photochromic molecules, which gives us the potential to develop new commercial products.
How we support small businesses
We support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the chemical sciences through a variety of different activities, helping them to address some of the specific challenges they meet.
EnterprisePlus is our dedicated service for small businesses. Companies that sign up obtain benefits, such as cost-effective access to chemical science information, ways to raise their profiles and support with recruitment and funding opportunities. 90 companies have joined since its launch just over a year ago, and we are looking to reach at least 300 over the next few years.
Through our EnterprisePlus Industrial Placement Grants – which we operate in partnership with the Cogent Life Science Placement Service – we fund one-year placements for undergraduate students in small companies. This year we awarded ten grants to SMEs spanning the chemicals, pharmaceuticals and life sciences, and the students will take up their positions this autumn.
