As we bid a fond farewell to 2018, a year full of success stories, celebrations, growth and adventure we look forward to 2019 with excitement and in anticipation for all it has in store. As we reflect on the year gone by, the lessons we have learnt and the journey we have been on we would like to share with you some of our highlights from 2018…

It has been a year of welcoming new faces.

We were delighted to expand our network of distribution partners in 2018, welcoming United YUYU from China, Thomy F.E doo from Slovenia and SPCare from Portugal into the Welland Medical family. The appointment of these new distributors builds on our successful strategy of working with independently run businesses to distribute our unique stoma care solutions within their country and we look forward to building strong partnerships with them all for many years to come.

It has been a year of celebrating.

2018 marked a year of celebration for Welland Medical, not only did it mark our 30th anniversary we also celebrated an endless list of achievements from employee success stories to record-breaking manufacturing output, so let us name just a few. We marked our 30th year with a corporate day out in June, which saw employees celebrating this landmark anniversary with a day in Brighton. Staff enjoyed a range of activities including a round of golf, go karting, a zip wire, the British Airways i360 and tours of the Brighton Pavilion before sitting down for a congratulatory three-course meal at the Amex Football Stadium.

We celebrated our longest serving employee Helen Gilbert, HR Manager, who has been with the company since day 1, many months of record-breaking sales, which saw employees enjoying pizza, paella, cakes and more in recognition of their continued hard work, and we even saw the installation of some important capital equipment. It has also been a year of celebration for some of our distributors who have been marking milestones of their own with J+A zdravotnicke in the Czech Republic celebrating 10 years working with Welland Medical and Gribi AG Belp in Switzerland marking their 80th anniversary.

We end the year with a larger than expected order book and would like to thank all of our distributors for an exceptionally busy year and we look forward to continuing this into 2019.

It has been a year of making a difference.

Ultimately, our goal is to improve the lives of ostomates around the world. Here are just a few examples of how we achieved this goal…
Jack Holst from Denmark who wears our Ultraframe flange extender has been competing in Marathons and IronMan races in close to elite times. Read Jack’s story here

Denise and Vicki from the UK have been sharing their stories about how our flushable bag has changed their lives for the better…

Denise’s Story

Vicki’s Story

Throughout the year, we have been busy raising money for St Catherine’s Hospice and Chestnut Tree House, two charity’s we regularly collaborate with, who care for those with progressive life-shortening conditions. Fundraising activities included raffles, music events organised by employees, orange bag donations and much more. We will be announcing the grand total raised for these great charities in the New Year.

The donation of five pallets of our ostomy solutions to HandInHand Syria and the Jacob Wells Appeal has seen our products distributed to ostomates in countries where supplies are too expensive or unattainable for those who need them. More information on our work with these charities is coming soon.

It has been a year of adventure.

Our two Business Development Managers, Hendrik Van Der Velde and Ian Morton travelled to 18 countries between them in 12 months. Supporting our distributors at exhibitions, patient meetings, product training, bringing in new business and much more. We can truly say they have covered a vast amount of the world.

Our manufacturing and engineering departments have gone above and beyond in ensuring the quality of our products remains at it’s high standard whilst producing record number of pouches per month.

We can honestly say its been a great year and everyone of our employees has contributed to this – To all our employees, we couldn’t have done it without you, thank you. Here we all are waving our flags feeling victorious.

We have enjoyed looking back on what has been a very busy 2018 and we now look forward to sharing exciting news and updates with you throughout 2019.