Last week saw the return of the International Paris Air Show following a four year break due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. As the world’s premier and largest event dedicated to the aviation and space industry, it welcomed over 300,000 visitors from 46 countries providing the opportunity for those in the industry to reconnect and discuss the future of the sector.

Barum & Dewar has been actively engaged in the Space sector for more than 25 years, designing and manufacturing bespoke shipping and transit containers for satellites and space hardware. In recent years, demand for B&D’s specialist products has grown from international clients and attendance at events such as the Paris Air Show has presented the opportunity to meet with existing clients and engage with prospective clients on upcoming projects.

Our Managing Director, David Frame spent two days at the Show and managed to meet with many of B&D’s clients, including Leonardo, Aerospacelab, Thales, Expleo and Qioptiq. B&D has been working with some of these clients for over 25 years, testament to our depth of experience in the aviation and space industry.

We look forward to attending once again when the show returns in 2025.

An integral part of our protective packaging solutions are our custom foam inserts. Barum & Dewar’s custom foam is all manufactured at our specialised foam facility by our sister company, B&D Foam. To give you further insight into our business and our foam capabilities we spoke with Glenn Taplin, General Manager at B&D Foam to find out more:

Q: Glenn, could you tell us more about B&D Foam as a business?

Since 2010 we have been working alongside the team at Barum & Dewar to provide an end-to-end service for the manufacturing of custom foam inserts. Taking the designs and specifications provided to us by Barum & Dewar’s expert design team and using a variety of machining techniques, we manufacture the required foam components. Following this they move to the assembly stage where they can be labelled, webbed or fitted with additional parts before they are bonded and tested in the case provided by Barum & Dewar.

Q: Where do you add value to customers?

Precision and quality are of key importance for Barum & Dewar’s customers. Our machines use the latest technology to ensure each foam component is engineered with accuracy. Quality is guaranteed through our manufacturing and assembly process with components checked at each stage.

Q: Values are particularly important to Barum & Dewar. What values resonate with B&D Foam in particular?

There is a real sense of shared values between the businesses, and this allows us to work closely together and ensure we deliver an end product that meets the client’s requirements. With a focus on delivering for customers every time, our dedicated team is focused on customer service excellence and building strong customer relationships. Integrity and trust also sit at the heart of the business and have done since its inception.

Q: What is important for the business moving forward?

Ultimately it comes down to continuing to deliver for our customers. We have built our reputation upon the excellent quality we deliver. We are ISO 9001 accredited, and we utilise the latest manufacturing technologies to ensure accuracy in the end product. We look forward to continuing to support the Barum & Dewar team in providing the complete packaging solution to all their customers.

As a values-led business and one of those core values focusing on ‘people’, we always place people at the heart of what we do. Usually this means a member of the B&D team, a supplier or customer, however, we are privileged to also support a number of charitable causes, one of which is Children’s Hospices Across Scotland(CHAS). One of the highlights in the charity social calendar is the CHAS Rocking Horse Ball and Barum & Dewar is delighted once again to be hosting a table of guests at this wonderful event.

For over thirty years Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS) has been offering a full family support service for babies, children, and young people with life-shortening conditions. This includes palliative care, family respite and support – through its hospices, homecare services and hospital presence. Over 16,700 children in Scotland are living with a life-shortening condition and CHAS want to reach every single one of those that need support because no family should face the death of their child alone.

Find out more about CHAS here: www.chas.org.uk 

Next up in our values series is Innovation. Through constantly seeking continuous improvement and challenging the status quo, we encourage shared ideas and collaboration both internally and externally. The team at Barum & Dewar is not afraid of change but seeks to harness the best of new ideas no matter how and where these arise and act swiftly to develop these.

Innovation is the lifeblood of any successful company. It is the key to staying ahead of the competition, meeting changing customer needs, and driving growth. In today's fast-paced world, companies that fail to innovate risk falling behind, losing market share, and ultimately becoming irrelevant. That's why innovation has always been an remains an important value for our business.

Innovation is not a one-time event; it is an ongoing process. By making innovation a core value, we have fostered a culture of continuous improvement, where employees are encouraged to explore new ideas and processes to improve not only our company's products, but our services and operations.

This all connects back to our commitment to providing our clients with the very best in Complete Packaging Solutions.

Barum & Dewar is pleased to announce that we will be stocking the newly released Explorer case range from GT Line. We have been stocking the existing case range for 15 years and this new release sees nine new Explorer Heavenly Light (HL) models. Seven of those come from the re-tooling of existing cases into more efficient and lighter versions; two of those are brand new sizes.

The seven re-tooled cases have identical internal dimensions to the previous models and a meaningful weight reduction, thanks to a new proprietary blend of high-performing copolymer polypropylene with nanoparticles, and are fully compliant and certified with MIL STAN, as all the other Explorer models are too.

Whilst the internal dimensions of new HL models remain unchanged, to ease the transition of all existing integration projects into the new version, the external of the cases has been redefined to a more functional and aesthetical design and upgraded some important new features.

Considering the global focus on reducing carbon footprint, the significant weight reduction of the new HL cases also contributes to a reduction of both the manufacturing and transportation carbon impact, in line so many of our customers objectives today.

Founded in 1970 in Bologna, Italy, GT Line has been delivering worldwide professional cases and boxes for 50 years and their products are widely recognised for their reliability and resistance. Barum & Dewar is proud to stock this new range and to continue to partner with GT Line.

To discuss this new range with our team please contact us.