Member Info for Muck165

Thanks for the summary GLR.

Vatic seem to still be under the radar for some, and certainly they don’t get high levels of reaction to their LinkedIn posts. But one chap who regularly likes them is one Sean Loftus, who is a National Implementation Manager at Supply Chain Coordination Ltd, a company controlled by the Sec of State for Health and Social Care, and specifically set up to act as the sole management function of the NHS supply chain.

Vatic are interesting for lots of reasons, but that is the most interesting for me!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-loftus-registered-prince2-practioner-6b843239/

https://www.sccl.nhs.uk/

In truth the only obligation under Rule 26 is to disclose details of shareholders with more than 3%, so they didn’t need to disclose the Conifer position in the update today.

Deal to manufacture Biosure tests

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/ABDX/exclusive-manufacturing-agreement-with-biosure/15070407

Now manufacturing Biosure tests

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/ABDX/exclusive-manufacturing-agreement-with-biosure/15070407

Not a graphite miner, but Peak (PEK/ASX) we’re granted their SML in Tanzania today. Interesting to note the govt support for their project.

https://wcsecure.weblink.com.au/pdf/PEK/02397921.pdf

Up 43% on the news.

Everything’s so cryptic! Can you say what question “yes” is the answer to?

Don’t know if I have much faith in it, but the advfn forum is suggesting MB has had reassuring conversations with some investors this week. All rumour…

https://uk.advfn.com/stock-market/london/armadale-capital-ACP/share-chat

One thing seems obvious - production is flat out to meet targets.

Surely you only do that if you have order deadlines to hit.

Exactly my take…

Part 2

an attitude problem. When the COO boldly writes to concerned staff that they should “get off the bus” when their concerns relate to a serious safety issue during a pandemic, that is an attitude issue. Technicians do appear to have lost the will to live somewhat, as evidenced by many of them seeking other employment. But who is to blame them when they have been employed as scientific graduates and promised variety and upskill opportunities, only to be told they are no longer scientists, and need to get their “production heads” on?

On top of this, products are poor quality due to being rushed through R&D. Due to upper management consisting almost entirely of non-scientific individuals, this has not been, and seems will not ever be addressed. Technicians are treated like machines, ignored when they explain why something is suboptimal and threatened with disciplinary action when raising concerns for safety. Overtime has been demanded and expected without any leeway for those individuals who found themselves so exhausted that they required time off to recuperate. This time off was then used as reasons to belittle individuals and block progression that was clearly deserved in favour of less experienced individuals who didn’t know enough to know when malpractice was being forced by managerial staff.

Overall, the company is a hotbed of non-compliance and has only survived audits thus far due to COVID-19 preventing visitors onsite. I would be surprised if the company lasted the year, and it frustrates me to know that those at the top with their 6 figure salaries will hardly be affected by it. You would be better off unemployed than working here.

1 July 21 review by Senior Technician - Part 1

"Pros
If you want to head up a company ladder quickly, this is your place! All you have to do is stick it out as everyone else leaves. No experience? No problem! They hire the people they like, so don't forget to treat the people below your pay grade with absolute disrespect, you will be management in no time!
Cons
Abingdon Health Plc placed itself front and centre of providing a rapid flow test for COVID-19 antibodies. It won a contract with the government and as such you would reasonably expect that they would be good at abiding by the guidelines set out for reducing the spread of the virus. You would be wrong. Whilst every other company on the site reduced numbers, made all those who possibly could work from home do so, put limits on numbers of individuals in rooms etc, Abingdon Health did the opposite. Increased numbers without increased space meant that at times people had to sit on the office floor due to a lack of chairs and space. A larger office had been promised from around August which never materialised, and then during recent announcements of cost cutting measures, was dropped altogether. Staff are stuffed into small labs, with no regard for social distancing. It was impossible to do your job without this. So “bubbles” were introduced. And then immediately dropped as all labs were shared spaces amongst departments. Hand sanitiser dispensers appeared in March 2021 (yes, 2021, a year after the initial lockdown started) and COVID cases on site in January of 2021 finally convinced the appropriate staff that a COVID policy should be written, over 10 months after it had been legally required.

Despite advertising itself as a company founded in honesty, on all adverts for vacancies the outright lie “full training schedule” is boldly claimed as a pro for working here. Do not be deceived. Site managers and line managers frequently upgrade peoples training levels against their wishes in order to stay “compliant” with the GMP and GLP regulations due to all the fully trained people having left. Training consists of being thrown in with multiple overworked, stressed and rushed individuals who simply do not have time to fully explain what is going on. This is entirely down to sales staff, production managers and team leaders repeatedly overscheduling the teams.

Attitude is frequently stated as a problem in meetings, with Technicians being told that they have a “them vs us” attitude towards management. I agree that attitude is an issue. When your line manager comes in every day and complains that they want their temperature to be high enough to be sent home, that is an attitude problem. When the site manager does not allow the QA department to know full details of issues because “they’ll stop production”, that is an attitude problem. When the COO boldly writes to concerned staff that they should “get off the bus” when their concerns relate to a serious safety issue during a pandemic, that i

26 June 21 review by production technician

"Pros
Really nice work colleagues and was decent pay and hours
Cons
Production manager absolutely useless just keeps running round saying numbers numbers without actually having any plan how to achieve targets

19 July 2021 review from a production technician

"Pros
The co-workers were genuinely lovely and the site is pretty.
Cons
Abingdon was not always the soul-crushing hellscape that it became, and the co-workers have been excellent throughout, but I could never in good conscience recommend them as an employer.

If the recent mass exodus of staff (by resignation, on top of the many redundancies that were recently made) isn't a clear enough indicator that something is amiss, then it was made quite clear by their business updates detailing just how wrong their predictive abilities were when it came to spending money they did not yet have.

Through the pandemic Abingdon have largely relied on the poor state of the job market to prevent people from leaving the business, however poorly they were treated. Despite even that, the technicians who knew the job well and who genuinely cared about their work were effectively driven out by the belligerent management style and the complete lack of respect shown. This left people who were relatively new to the role themselves to train new starters and mistakes inevitably occurred on occasion. The solution? Tell staff that the company will start holding individuals personally accountable for any mistakes they might be connected to. Very constructive.

Every attempt to communicate any issues with upper management was met, at best, with empty and often condescending promises for change and, at worst, threats and genuine aggression. The COO of the company expertly demonstrated what it is to gaslight an entire room of people voicing legitimate concerns with his swift evaluation that their only problem was them thinking of themselves as victims. Thus, predictably, staff morale was festering in the sewers.

Very little of what I saw at Abingdon was done by the book, and management seemed to rely on the naïveté of the mostly-young workforce in order to get away with underhanded and potentially illegal moves. Such is the result when you employ individuals with no laboratory experience or scientific knowledge to manage predominantly laboratory-based production.

It's also worth mentioning that the promise of possible job progression is not to be trusted. Management are perfectly comfortable bypassing individuals who take the time to apply and interview for roles in favour of approaching someone who did not apply but is more amenable to the Abingdon way of working.

It's difficult to imagine the company ever recovering from its current state but regardless, I am certainly glad to have gotten out when I did. But perhaps all those improvements that were promised long ago will actually come to fruition and their staff will no longer regularly break down in tears! However, as stated many times, they don't have a magic wand so I doubt it."

Some interesting recent reviews about Abingdon by the employees on Glassdoor. I can't post links so will copy and paste in subsequent posts.

Sounds like mgmt are flogging production staff. Might indicate solid orders, but it is it seems creating problems in the working environment. Anyway, I'll leave it for you all to judge.

Some interesting recent reviews about Abingdon by the employees on Glassdoor. I can't post links so will copy and paste in subsequent posts.

Sounds like mgmt are flogging production staff. Might indicate solid orders, but it is it seems creating problems in the working environment. Anyway, I'll leave it for you all to judge.

Didn’t he also promote the use of LFTs at PCR testing sites given the increasing time it’s taking to get PCR results. In other words, get the two tests to work together?

So this ad for more permanent production/assembly operatives was posted on Sunday

https://jobs.cubedresourcing.co.uk/vacancies/2045/production--assembly-operatives.html

Note the emboldened statement “ A basic DBS check will be undertaken, upon start, due to the nature of the company/site. This is paid for by the company.**

Now I may be wrong, but I think I’m right in saying that the govt routinely requires staff making tests its buying to have a DBS check.

https://accessaa.co.uk/music-venue-trust-launches-takeatest-initiative/

New campaign starting today to encourage voluntary LFT testing at grassroots events

https://twitter.com/BigBiteNow/status/1417025291755663364

Should knock out some rubbish

Just to note that the Soros E onomic Development Fund has been involved with GAD for a while, and took a fixed and floating charge over its assets as far back as October last year, presumably for debt funding.

https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/document-api-images-live.ch.gov.uk/docs/dDZdWQMxCYumiMvrH6Lz1tO-YRGv7xU2vDJuk9df9OY/application-pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAWRGBDBV3CSRUBRWC%2F20210718%2Feu-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20210718T220230Z&X-Amz-Expires=60&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEIH%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaCWV1LXdlc3QtMiJHMEUCIQC8FZrUkhzXddeSHzxw2gkFc4KXfHyTwoABfipg0AhGvwIgbrbxU8g4EG7MGNZdsuRLojZ1%2FJPnMUxRp7JKuDBAXSIq%2BgMIehADGgw0NDkyMjkwMzI4MjIiDGLOB9OgBY2ro55loirXA5hoe20SKyJtiEbZjaa73ycqfdwTxQIRrSIlPf8sL50DGtUWk2VsneW%2BLTcvWnpcelDiNwA%2BdW%2Bty1f2sx0e3cDWRCmqoJYxOlmCaYn6D8RI%2FygPEV1XzuqbDMcdmgscZ788qKKs9QbMd16gmyUA0a7J2R4fdYEzl0dV%2BhVQYzlsvGku%2FCpQabZ0FuUyr0DsjL7prsmuXn98t4VriZH%2FuraENxh956hrUGO8sarUJwxx05jqKTkiqbDHW57AAiwCGl6bhwxHp%2BI8AM4%2BHJcag1fcvFncckVZSEATyg4DYhBjc7SwVKyh%2BsLR2z6vB1qPFpOYMvVbK%2Bhndd4Ge6hkM%2FQ4i3MQBP4wMj%2BHEX1j3gqsV0bkCL3FpU%2BP94WDIgK8DK%2BKahWHnvbl6%2FRxEkCqnLiQgViEJ4xSESTlWIKWCdVA4n%2FSocVRNPnI%2BvKIP%2BsAV76UhtqPiigkneYNSr3V%2BLf%2FKSQyr%2FZOpLOZfdNx90XQfwFqU%2BgAW3F596tVbi28OMt%2F9KK9s0bvax%2BqYZlCAhzLoGzcZqvxAOkhnEJe3DDrgWqiyBFfW36jKi6aoZZIYlrT%2FE99ctj%2BXI4DNeFBpHKm7aEyocGEDvCK%2BFKPcQ5sSnGts1VWHzCjq9GHBjqlAePMg7mFCdHKFp%2F0WuHo462HFIkEYR0Qt4NtNtSge0TENYB1AgEHxImNCnLEDdyrBc7K4nBJKa2LGJkcpdgXsIJCWWuLzoQQxPb9IBuoVrLBF%2BbdAMStukSfHVarOMXl1kJbWs5QKsXASkKQuGw560TLIqOdERpX3UI5Wk0ZaWxcg6REBSzVu5q%2BFV1kzDNcpIMC4J0YFeMpULSVckpsMZ7QG37peA%3D%3D&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=inline%3Bfilename%3D%22companies_house_document.pdf%22&X-Amz-Signature=928adc5854d7755f56944f3fcc9cda409de07345358394afbce23c168556442a