UK-based Randox Laboratories Ltd has set up its first manufacturing unit outside the UK in Bangalore.

About four years ago, the privately-owned diagnostic reagent and equipment manufacturer commissioned a UK Trade and Investment Market research to establish their distribution office in India, following which their first office was set up in Mumbai.

"The success of the operations has now led to their setting up of a manufacturing unit, first outside the UK, in Bangalore," a British trade official said.

Established in 1982, Randox is a multi-million pound business employing over 600 people, including 185 research scientists, and has sales and distribution agreements in over 130 countries.

Randox develops, manufactures and markets a wide range of clinical diagnostic products for laboratory medicine. Their core products and services are biochip array technology, clinical chemistry automation systems and external quality assurance schemes, among others.

Peter Fitzgerald, who was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2004, is the managing director of Randox.

Blue Box Ltd starts India biz

British hardware inventory broking firm Blue Box Ltd has started operations in India to explore further business opportunities first hand.

Blue Box is a subsidiary of Azure Integration Ltd, created for their overseas operations. Blue Box has taken over the original Azure Integration business model, delivering a supply-only solution to end users via 'unique intelligent procurement.'

According to British trade officials, since July 2004, Azure Integration has billed over £200,000 into Indian based operations, with a pipeline of new business worth £270,000 per month in place from November this year.

The client base in India for Blue Box include HP, Intel, General Motors, Tata Infotech and Wipro, they said.

Blue Box, which is seeking to raise the saliency of the brand and giving an "initial injection" of awareness in India, has appointed a two-member team who would mainly concentrate on selling and networking activities, while tasks like buying and invoicing would be done in the UK.