Team of the Year

We're delighted and proud to say that the Bambach UK Team has selected as a 2019 Dental Industry Award Finalist in the category ‘Team of the Year (Fewer than 25 Employees)’

Here's a transcript of our submission:

A year ago, Bambach UK did not exist. This is the story of how a group of people came together to overcome huge challenges and, in the process, develop into a cohesive and effective team.

The Bambach Saddle Seat was invented by an Australian OT, Mary Gale (ne Bambach) who observed that sitting on horseback improved balance and backpain. She went on to develop an evidence-based saddle stool and create a global brand.

In 2018, Hager & Werken (H&W) acquired the worldwide rights to the brand. However, they needed a UK distributor and approached us; we loved the product and in September 2018 set up a dedicated division, Bambach UK.

This was not easy: from a standing start we had to effectively create a new company with a turnover of over a £250,000. The only things carried over from the previous distributor were the website, phone number and the sales manager (WARREN CREWE, who agreed to stay on and share his 20 years of product knowledge).

Problems started the evening before we were due to start when the newly recruited senior administrator told us she would not be coming! Fortunately, VIVIEN BREGANZA, from Customer Services in our pharmacy division, agreed to an emergency secondment and kept the show on the road.

Following an urgent recruitment drive we were joined in quick succession by:

• KELLY KNOX, who has her own Wikipedia page! (general administration and social media).
• EDA CELEBI, who despite questionable taste in football teams, took on product management
• DENISE IONS, a renowned expert in shoes, covered exhibitions and marketing.

These three quickly formed a close-knit team dealing with customer services. They were supported by MAHMUD HABIB (product technician) and ELAINE FERGUSON, the senior Manager, keeping everything together.

By early 2019 the team was in place, but it still faced considerable problems. Apart from learning about the product (there are over a million possible permutations), they also had to learn about our very varied customer base.

Another set of problems was administrative, the JOE AGLIATA, our resident ICT expert had created a new ‘virtual’ accounting company for Bambach but it soon became clear that ‘Customer Relationship Management’ (CRM) software was needed – he got this up and running in record time, radically improving our service.

The final, and perhaps most serious, problem was a lack of stock. Production had been transferred to a new facility in Germany. However, H&W’s absolute insistence on maintaining quality meant that initially production could not keep up with demand and some customers had to wait several weeks for their stools. However, our German team members, PAUL VÖGLER and SAMY MAMLOUK worked tirelessly to resolve the problems and, by April, the backlog was cleared. By then our systems were working efficiently and the team was finally in control and were coming up with completely new solutions to improve both service and products.

The first few months had been incredibly difficult but by working together our team created a new company out of nothing.