News | 27/06/2024

Goodfellow secures first US manufacturing footprint with Potomac Photonics acquisition

Goodfellow and Potomac join forces to create a leading advanced materials platform marrying highly specialized materials with advanced R&D and microfabrication.

A leading supplier of advanced materials and metals has completed its first acquisition to give it greater capability and an immediate manufacturing footprint in the US.

Huntingdonshire based Goodfellow, which is owned by Battery Ventures, has purchased microfabrication specialist Potomac Photonics in a strategic deal that will help it increase its presence in the rapidly expanding medical device sector and microfluidics.

The latter serves as a key enabler for numerous promising biomedical applications ranging from cell therapies to cancer diagnostics. It marks a strong start to 2024 for the Huntingdon-based business and comes only a few weeks after a significant distribution contract was agreed and the launch of a new brand and website completed to drive ambitious growth targets.

Simon Kenney, Chief Executive Officer of Goodfellow, commented: “This acquisition ticks all the right boxes for us. As a net global exporter, bringing Potomac Photonics into the family allows us to increase our range of products, gives us greater post-processing capabilities and, importantly, delivers a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in the United States.

“Having supplied materials for many breakthroughs, with Lawrence Livermore’s nuclear fusion reaction being one prominent example, I’ve always said that our customers go on to do something truly remarkable with the materials they source from us.”

He continued: “We are often the first step of this process. and can now offer a full range of high-end material capabilities. This means we will be better able to support our customers along their journey from research to production.”

Potomac, which is based in Baltimore, Maryland, is a leader in microfabrication with a long history of helping clients develop high-quality miniature components.

Leveraging a broad range of technologies, the company is well-equipped to micromachine a wide range of materials such as polymers, metals, ceramics, and glass with feature sizes on the micron-scale that cannot be seen with the naked eye. It serves as a true partner to its clients, with an ability to scale from single prototypes to millions of parts for production.

Mike Adelstein, President and Co-Owner of Potomac, was excited to complete the deal: “Having used Goodfellow’s products for more than two decades, I was greatly humbled and honoured by the opportunity to partner with the Goodfellow team.

“As a business passionate about helping customers solve difficult materials and machining challenges, having access to its global network of clients will enable us to accelerate our reach across key geographies and markets.”

Andrew Watson, Goodfellow’s Chief Financial Officer, concluded: “In addition to the highly complementary strategic fit, we view the United States as a vitally important growth market for our business and are excited to add more critical mass to the regional sales office we already have out there.

“With Potomac serving as the Group’s US hub, we are excited to continue supporting its advanced machining capabilities, while simultaneously building out our existing range of products in the USA.”

Goodfellow, which supplies a wide range of high-quality metals, alloys, ceramics, polymers, compounds and composites, has recently launched new branding to reflect the modern-day image of the business.

Inspiration for the new design was taken from the baseline of the firm’s products at a nano, microscopic and macroscopic level, with the shapes corresponding to rods, tubes, balls and beads.

These spheres are collated together to form the brand icon that sits above the new Goodfellow strapline of ‘Advanced Materials, Innovation Delivered’.

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