MANILA, Philippines - Someone (my editor, I think) felt it would be fun sending me to Glemsford, England to cover Philips Avent’s innovations in breast pumps, pacifiers, baby bottles and sterilizers — not because I’m a big baby, but because I’m a guy. And I’d be lying if I said that part of me wasn’t hoping there would be live demonstrations of breast pumps with audience volunteers and lots of hands-on assistance.
But there wasn’t. What we learned in Glemsford is that making baby products is what Philips Avent does best; their 100,000 sqm. plant has 750 workers who turn out millions and millions of bottles, silicone teats, and breast pumps per year. They’ve won awards for it, even three citations from the Queen Mother herself. So they take baby bottles very seriously.
They also make a lot of cool gadgets. No, I’m not talking cell phones or gaming consoles; they make stuff for nursing moms that would raise even 007’s eyebrows. Electrical breast massagers. Double breast pumps for, you know, twins. Nipple caps that act like milk collectors to collect excess spillage. Suction pumps to reverse inverted nipples. But alas, no demonstrations.
Before Philips acquired the Avent business, it was doing quite well on the strength of its unique anti-colic bottle, designed by Edward and Celia Atkin and introduced back in 1984. That squat plastic bottle with the wide opening and custom vacuum-valve that lets air into the bottle (instead of baby’s stomach) proved a huge hit, and when Philips purchased Avent in 2006, they just kept on going: electric breast pumps with active massage cushions, analogue and digital baby monitors, digital thermometer sets, bottle sterilizers, the recent Steamer & Blender that lets you heat up baby’s vegetables or solids, then flip the container over and turn it into mush in a few seconds with less clean-up. All of it combines the core strengths of a trusted baby bottle brand and an international electronics giant.
I was surrounded by mothers at Glemsford. It might seem strange, me being practically the only male there, but I am a father, so I do have some experience with bottles, breast pumps and such. As Woody Allen once remarked, “I know how to handle breasts.”
Visiting the factory floor at Glemsford, we were amazed to watch baby bottles turned out en masse from the injection molding machines (from a little blob of plastic comes a perfectly formed Avent bottle in seconds); the meticulous testing and employee feedback system (at Philips Avent, any employee can stop the production line at any time if they spot trouble; it sounds costly, but this focuses the plant on a problem immediately, before it turns into a crisis); the steady hum of machinery, and the aroma of fresh silicone filling the air. Yes: a not-unpleasant scent that might make any factory owner sniff the air and proclaim, “I love the smell of silicone in the morning!”
As Peter Bartlett, senior quality systems manager at the Glemsford plant, told us: “We’re very passionate about our products, and we love our customers — which is not surprising, because they’re babies.”
Since 2006, Avent has “leveraged” its link to Philips to create innovative products like the Niplette (a simple suction device that can reverse a mother’s inverted nipples during breastfeeding without need of surgery). They even have special silicone nipple caps to collect any excess “letdown” when not feeding. (Okay, this is actually more information than most males can take.) Bartlett stands by the Philips slogan: Sense and simplicity. “It’s really been helpful in developing as a company. We design the product around you, the parent, with extensive collaboration with healthcare professionals; and all of our products are clinically proven.”
We’ll drink to that, breasts pumps, sterilizers and other babycare products yearly.