From our earliest days we established ourselves as a trusted provider of chromatography products and services. While we have expanded our product and service offerings, we’ve never strayed from our foundation: understanding your needs and working to make your life easier. The manifestations of this are individual relationships with lab managers and technicians that allow us to tailor our support to your circumstances and challenges. A perfect customer relationship is one where you never need to worry about your consumables because you know “Breakwood has this”! We are here to make your life easier.
Our Roots Run Deep
The history of Breakwood Enterprises is rooted in innovation and growth in the chromatography sector. Founded in the late 1960s as Isolab in Elkhart, Indiana, the company relocated to Norton, Ohio, in the early 1970s. Isolab was notable for introducing the first commercial HbA1c test in 1978, a significant development in diabetes testing. In 1988, Isolab was acquired by EG&G Wallac, marking the beginning of several transitions, including a name change to PerkinElmer Life Sciences.
Breakwood is Born
In April 2003, Jeff Woodliff, an employee at PerkinElmer Life Sciences, captured an opportunity to purchase a handful of products, equipment, and materials from the company and strike off on his own. There began Breakwood Enterprises!
Jeff bootstrapped the purchase of the company by convincing management to accept a commission on sales and promising them preferred pricing on their purchases for a given period of time. With this jumpstart, Jeff and his wife Kerry were off and running.
When I met them in 2017 through a mutual friend, Jeff was quite ill and Kerry was trying to keep the business afloat. Illness and life’s burdens resulted in unanswered calls and emails, business declined and processes had lapsed. On December 31, 2017, Jeff passed away; just a few months later Kerry was diagnosed with cancer. At the urging of our mutual friend, she and I met and discussed the future of Breakwood and in July 2018 we came to an agreement. On February 21st of 2019 Kerry was overcome by her cancer and went on to her eternal reward.
Jeff and Kerry were good people, hard working people, people of faith. Below is the only pictures I have of them together. God bless Jeff and Kerry.
Acquisition and the Pandemic
In early 2019 we began digging out of the back-log of orders and put up our first website in preparation for Pittcon 2019. I think we had about a dozen components on that single-page website, but at least we had a web presence and were visible to the world.
We were making great progress and charting our course when the pandemic stopped the world from turning and many people began to panic. I recall being on the phone with a new customer, a lab manager. She said, “can you help me get gloves, I can’t even get gloves”. Instinctively, I said, “Sure, we will get you gloves”.
As I thought about this more it became so obvious that what customers needed was just to be able to focus on getting their work done while leaving the care of supplies to someone else; and that someone else was us. At that point we changed our strategic focus from products to service and our three core principles were born: being Easy to Do Business With, providing Concierge Level Service and being a Trusted Expert. As we built out our programs and service model around these core principles, the pieces began to fall into place. Recently, I overheard one of our team members say to a customer, “if it’s not immoral or illegal, we’ll do!” . That simple silly statement embodies the spirit of our business today. I think the video below exemplifies the power of this model.
Going Forward
Since the epiphany that led us to our core principles, we have broadened our product offering beyond SPE, adding a full line of UHPLC/HPLC columns, sample handling, sample preparation, chemicals, reagents, plastic and glass labware PPE, and equipment, all at the request of our customers. Our services have grown to include consulting, design, development, production, and OEM filling, kitting, and packaging. Breakwood also has a unique competency in injection molding products for the laboratory market and a range of others.
Our Reputation: Customer Testimonials
We are not braggarts, in fact an unwritten principle at Breakwood is “deliver way more than you promise”! The company’s values of integrity, quality, and personalized service have earned us a reputation for excellence. The testimonials below highlight Breakwood’s commitment to meeting the unique needs of each customer, providing efficient and streamlined processes, and offering a level of service not found in our larger competitors. This is what our customers are saying about us.
If you are a Breakwood customer, thank you and we look forward to continuing to serve you. If you are not, let’s talk! We are here to help you succeed!
We have been using Breakwood columns for our production for over 10 years. While service suffered due to the health of the prior owners, the new management has really turned things around. They have made personalized service, quality and responsiveness their highest priority. Breakwood is always asking . . . how can we help?
– Chandell Terwilliger, Operations Manager, Gene Tools
After being told “NO” by several large chromatography consumables suppliers we found Breakwood. They were more than happy to produce a small batch of sorbent we purchase once a year. We’ve never purchased from them before, but they treated us like an important customer.
– Quinn Roberts, Lab Manager, Department of Physical Sciences, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, The College of William and Mary
Thank you for taking a few minutes to read our blog! In some instances the names may have been changed for legal purposes or at the request of the individual but all of the situations and lessons are real life examples.