Radley’s taps Syrris for U.S. Lara sales

RIDGEWOOD, N.J.—Just 18 months after the introduction of its Lara Controlled Laboratory Reactor (CLR) system in the European market, U.K.-based laboratory equipment supplier Radleys announced an exclusive North American distribution partnership for the product with Syrris Inc. The deal covers sales and support of Lara, as well as the Coflux Calorimetry module.

The partnership with Syrris was a natural progression for Radleys according to Peter Savic, Radleys director of international sales, as the two companies had worked together to design and develop the Lara CLR. "We went with Syrris because their background is right in the target market for this product," Savic says. "To find the right partner we wanted to find someone who was naturally out visiting and talking with our potential customers."

For Syrris, the timing of the deal works well. Earlier this year, the company opened its first office in the United States, as the company seeks to gain inroads for its flagship product, the AFRICA flow microreactor.  While AFRICA targets discovery operations and the Lara CLR is a tool for drug development, Richard Gray, president of the U.S. subsidiary Syrris Inc., says the customer base is similar.

Further, Radleys would be hard-pressed to find a distributor as knowledgeable about Lara, since Syrris developed the hardware and software for the product. "It works very well for us as a company, since we are both the distributor and get a royalty on the sale of each unit," says Gray. In addition, Syrris sales staff can more confidently address customers' questions about future potential upgrades to Lara since its work with Radleys on the product is ongoing.

Benefits to chemists of the Lara CLR, both Radleys and Syrris officals say, is in the automation of the reaction process and data collection, but also in the ease and speed of changing the different sizes of jacketed glass reaction vessels. "In the past changing vessels and stirrer alignment could often mean half a day or more of equipment downtime," says Savic. "When we bring this to our customers for a demonstration and can have it turning within half an hour, they really begin to see the benefit."