*PICTURED: Bernard Garbe, former CEO of Vitalograph
VITALOGRAPH’S Ennis operation is central to the company’s reputation as a global leader in respiratory diagnostic solutions.
Employing around 550 people worldwide, Vitalograph was established in 1963 in Maids Moreton, Buckingham, England by Dietmar and Margaret Garbe. Their son, Bernard, suffered from asthma and often struggled to breathe. In 1962 Dietmar put this knowledge to good use, when he was asked by the Medical Research Council Pneumoconiosis Panel to develop a simple, mobile spirom-eter (the ‘Vitalograph’) to screen coal miners for what was then called Black Lung. The invention led to the formation of the company.
Dietmar persuaded his son to join the company in 1979 as chief designer, tempting him away from a career in the aircraft industry. Dietmar sadly passed away the next year.
A fortuitous move to Ennis in 1974 would prove to be a key moment in Vitalograph’s growth, where today more than 300 of its workforce of 550 people are employed developing pulmonary function testing solutions and carrying out cough analysis as part of the company’s participation in drug trials.
This year Vitalograph celebrates 50 years in Ennis. Former Managing Director and Chairperson of the Board, Bernard Garbe, recalls the unlikely story of how the England-based company ended up establishing their largest operation in County Clare.
“That’s quite a long story actually,” recounts Bernard. “There was a person running the company in Buckingham when my father moved over to the US, and his wife called Daphne was from Ennis. We weren’t allowed to expand our manufacturing on our Maids Moreton site so we started looking around at lots of development areas like Crewe and places where they’d taken out coal mines and there was lots of unemployment, and he said why don’t you look at Ennis?”
Bernard notes that the support of Ennis Town Council and Shannon Development in attracting new industry to County Clare was a key reason that Ennis was ultimately chosen as the future of Vitalograph.
“[Ennis Town Council] gave us a sort of mentor called Ted Shields and Ted negotiated with us and the Council and various other bodies and eventually got this site where we are now.”
While the development of the Gort Road Industrial Estate was ongoing, Vitalograph had humble beginnings in Ennis, manufacturing at a small site beside Ted Shields Garage. Bernard’s relationship with Ireland would blossom as he took over running the Ennis operation when former manager, Peter Henry, emigrated to New Zealand. “I commuted from England to Shannon nearly every week for 10 years. It was great fun, apart from the commuting, but I got used to that. Sometimes I would drive the car over but mostly I’d fly,” says Bernard (71), who credits Enterprise Ireland’s con-tribution as a key driver behind the rapid expansion of Vitalograph’s Ennis operation.
“I had a great Research & Development Manager called Dr Ardawan Lalui, he was a Bahá’í, a refu-gee from Persia as he called it, Iran. He was a software doctor, he was a brilliant personality. Later on, Ardawan left to run a Bahá’í mission in the Czech Republic so I needed an R&D manager. I got Frank Keane in, and Frank proved to be extremely capable, and eventually I appointed him within a few years as General Manager.”
A local man heavily involved in the early days at Vitalograph was Tony Roche, from St Michael’s Vil-las in Ennis. Speaking about the company’s temporary beginnings at Ted Shield’s Garage, he ex-plains, “I started in the late ‘70s where FBD is now. We had a small little place no bigger than this room, Peter was the man who got it off the ground. I was a store man and a general gofer. Every month a delivery would come from the UK, the raw material. That time I’d say they were only punching out 10 machines a month.”
Tony, who remembers being the first male employee in Ennis, continued, “There weren’t many people employed at that particular time when we took over the new building. The only thing I re-member is the day it was officially opened, we had an opening in Dromoland Castle if you don’t mind, they all came from the UK, the dignitaries from Ennis were at it, it was a freebie for every-one. It was the day that the breathalyser came into being and I can tell you, I went home by Quin anyway because I had so much cargo down, I couldn’t go the main road!”
Tony’s strongest memories include table tennis competitions between staff after work, social events at the Cloister, and the example set by then General Manager Peter Henry. “A lot of the lads I often meet, we speak about Peter Henry.” says Tony, who used to wash all the windows of Vitalograph as a side-earner. “A lady used to come with the delivery from the UK, it had all to be checked in down to the screw and rivet, everything had to be accounted for. Peter ran a very tight ship. Every day he’d come into the office and he’d be there all day and have no lunch, he’d drink coffee 5 or 6 times in the day until it was time to go home.
“We won a County Final in ’81 with Éire Óg, and he gave me a couple of days off to celebrate and in fairness there was no deduction in the wages, he said that was part of the company. When I came back they had a big hullabaloo for me, that was part of the make-up of the company, they were very fair.”
Vitalograph has since expanded its Ennis facility to incorporate a second premises at Gort Road In-dustrial Estate with over 100,000sq ft in total now. Tony admits he’s stunned by the progress at the company where he once helped to assemble spirometers over 40 years ago.
“This is the first time I’ve come back since I left it. It’s a credit to them, it’s a credit to the people who took it on the first day. Peter Henry left a good legacy after him, he ran a tight ship and he left that place in good fettle for the people who came afterwards and he was a very fair man. I am de-lighted to see Vitalograph is progressing, the amount of people working for them, I couldn’t believe it. It’s a credit to them.”
For anyone interested in a career with Vitalograph please visit https://vitalograph.com/about/
