Company History
In 2002, under the leadership of Dewi Jones, CBS spun-out from UWA as CBS Technologies (acquiring at the time the trading activity of Edinburgh Genetics’ Malvern Centre) and established its base in Capel Dewi, near Aberystwyth, at the heart of the Welsh sheep industry. Over the next two years the company broadened its portfolio to include a range of complementary services such as scrapie genotyping, parasite management, muscle and backfat scanning and technical consultancy and it delivered these services to breeders right across Wales and England. The company’s growth during that period was reflected by its recognition as one of the Wales Hot 100 and Fast-Growth 50 companies in 2005.
After a close association which began in 2003, CBS Technologies then came together with two small companies which serviced the pig breeding sector under the umbrella of Innovis. As a result, Innovis has two additional commercial operations, one of which supplies fresh boar semen to one of the main pig breeding companies in the UK and other distributes artificial breeding products for IMV Technologies – a world leader in reproductive technologies. This distributorship has grown since then to encompass the supply of IMV products for all species.
The UK jigsaw was then completed in June 2005 by the purchase of Britbreed Ltd, a specialist company focused on sheep breeding in Scotland, giving Innovis country wide coverage. Between the two Centres, Innovis now AIs almost 50,000 sheep across the UK and delivers a range of on-farm services.
In addition to commercial services, Innovis has just delivered the Welsh Ewe Genotyping Scheme AI on behalf of Hybu Cig Cymru and the Welsh Assembly Government and currently delivers the ARK project for DEFRA. This national project is creating a Semen Archive to store genetic material from scrapie susceptible rams that, over time, will be bred out of the national flock as part of the National Scrapie Plan for Great Britain (NSP-GB) and the Northern Ireland Scrapie Plan (NSP-NI).
Innovis has a forward-looking ethos and is an industrial collaborator in a number of research projects with academic institutions in Wales, the UK, and Europe, involved in projects which we hope will help to develop the technologies and services which breeders will utilise in the coming years.
Some of those new technologies and new concepts are already becoming available through two new joint ventures between Innovis and organisations in New Zealand
• Catapult Systems is delivering DNA-based markers to assist breed improvement and is working with academic institutions in the UK and NZ to commercialise new markers which become available.
• Innovis Genetics is developing a new Integrated Sheep Breeding System - a comprehensive approach which will offer considerable benefits to both hill and lowland producers.
Innovis currently employs around 50 staff across five locations
After a close association which began in 2003, CBS Technologies then came together with two small companies which serviced the pig breeding sector under the umbrella of Innovis. As a result, Innovis has two additional commercial operations, one of which supplies fresh boar semen to one of the main pig breeding companies in the UK and other distributes artificial breeding products for IMV Technologies – a world leader in reproductive technologies. This distributorship has grown since then to encompass the supply of IMV products for all species.
The UK jigsaw was then completed in June 2005 by the purchase of Britbreed Ltd, a specialist company focused on sheep breeding in Scotland, giving Innovis country wide coverage. Between the two Centres, Innovis now AIs almost 50,000 sheep across the UK and delivers a range of on-farm services.
In addition to commercial services, Innovis has just delivered the Welsh Ewe Genotyping Scheme AI on behalf of Hybu Cig Cymru and the Welsh Assembly Government and currently delivers the ARK project for DEFRA. This national project is creating a Semen Archive to store genetic material from scrapie susceptible rams that, over time, will be bred out of the national flock as part of the National Scrapie Plan for Great Britain (NSP-GB) and the Northern Ireland Scrapie Plan (NSP-NI).
Innovis has a forward-looking ethos and is an industrial collaborator in a number of research projects with academic institutions in Wales, the UK, and Europe, involved in projects which we hope will help to develop the technologies and services which breeders will utilise in the coming years.
Some of those new technologies and new concepts are already becoming available through two new joint ventures between Innovis and organisations in New Zealand
• Catapult Systems is delivering DNA-based markers to assist breed improvement and is working with academic institutions in the UK and NZ to commercialise new markers which become available.
• Innovis Genetics is developing a new Integrated Sheep Breeding System - a comprehensive approach which will offer considerable benefits to both hill and lowland producers.
Innovis currently employs around 50 staff across five locations