• • • EDITOR’S INTERVIEW • • •


Seaward heralds market opportunities as it celebrates its 40th anniversary


As Seaward celebrates its 40th anniversary year, Simon King headed to Peterlee in County Durham to find out more about the company and its success


E


lectrical safety test and measurement equipment specialists Seaward has been at the forefront of the PAT testing and


biomedical testing industry for decades while continuing develop innovative end-of-line production testing equipment, resistance measurement and technology. Gregg Brown, commercial manager at Seaward, said: “It was Rod Taylor, who started the business all those years ago, who pretty much, single handily, created the PAT testing market as we know it in the UK.


production line safety test equipment for manufacturing, biomedical safety testing and solar PV panel testing. “We make it easy to keep people safe,” Mr


Barwell added. “The core of the Seaward offer is electrical safety but we have also developed our products, which are still made here in Peterlee, to support new markets and applications to meet customer demand both here in the UK and across the world.”


Visionary business Mr Brown said the business vision is to remain a UK company, with local people involved in the design and build. “Keeping everything under one roof, makes us


an agile, responsive manufacturer, even more so in these times when global supply chains are being challenged,” he said. “You can see this at Peterlee; Nick Maltby heads


up the engineering team, which sits just down the corridor from the commercial team, which is also located close to the operations team. This has all combined to allow us to be agile and flexible enough to overcome issues and challenges when they arise.” He added the business had certainly seen the


benefit of this approach over the last couple of years during the Covid pandemic. Mr Brown said: “We’ve got very strong


Gregg Brown, commercial manager at Seaward “It was his vision that saw the first company


move from big, bulky mains power testers to the advanced, high performance handheld testers that are in ubiquitous use today across all sectors of business.” The company is very much a driving force of


creativity and product innovation, as well as working in areas such as legislation and white papers to set the industry standards. This is reinforced by Nathan Barwell, Seaward’s category manager, who believes that the industry has undergone massive changes since 1982. “PAT testing has become a big business,” he


said. “Today, there’s a lot of pressure on people, so we’ve had to continually invest and evolve to help meet our customers’ needs. We’ve had to adapt not only our products, but the way we bring them to market, and the developments that are undertaken to match the pace of change and what our customers demand from us.” At the heart of Seaward’s product offering is


electrical safety – it’s about keeping people safe from electrical harm – which flows out into a number of different PAT testing products,


12 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING • JULY/AUGUST 2022 electricalengineeringmagazine.co.uk


relationships. Our customers, some of whom have been with us for 40 years, value that we listen and


because we’re also close to them, we respond quickly to deliver the solutions they want and require.” The focus of the business is not just making


instruments, but the workflow of the customer. Mr Barwell said: “Spending time dealing


with customers and talking to them and understanding exactly how they work, is a real strength. It enables us to deliver effective product solutions that meet customer workflows. This in turn ensures equipment performs correctly and to optimum levels.


Nathan Barwell, Seaward’s category manager “For example, rather than it being an instrument


for measuring, we consider the entire process and how we can speed it up. We also consider how we can make customers more efficient and their lives much easier.”


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