From humble beginnings to cutting edge innovation, we spoke with the Founder and Namesake of BST Detectable Products, Brian Teasdale, to hear his story. 

“Well, it all started when redundancies cropped up at work.” In 1983 there was talk that they were going to close the bakery Brian worked in. So, facing redundancy in 1984, Brian was offered the opportunity to go down to Canterbury and resume his engineering role there. “I went for an interview and got the job, and I decided I wasn’t going.” A bold decision but an easy one according to Brian. With a house in Doncaster and a wife with a good job in the area, it made no sense to Brian to move. When his regional manager questioned Brian’s decision and asked what he planned to do instead, he simply replied “I’m going to start a business.” Of course this was met with scepticism, but Brian had decided that this was what he needed to do, and so, he did. “I had nothing to start with, nothing at all.” With what little redundancy he had received, Brian scraped together the basics of a business, BST Engineering Supplies, which then became the foundation of what we now know to be B S Teasdale and Son Ltd t/a BST Detectable Products. The first step was to get out on the road and, using contacts he had made from training courses and 23 years’ experience as an engineer, he spread the word of his new business. His aim, to help people and solve problems in the food industry. “I knew four other engineers in Sheffield, Doncaster, Nottingham, and Leicester.  So, I went round and spoke to them and told them what I was doing and asked if there anything I could help them with.” From there, the business grew by word of mouth with people suggesting new companies to visit, adding contacts to Brian’s ever-growing list of potential customers. Early business life was a struggle as this one-man operation strived to keep up with demand. “I was just about beginning to make profit after three years. I wasn’t even breaking even the first two years.” But luckily, Brian had help from his family to support him. “My wife was doing all the invoices at the weekends for me and John joined me after three years, that’s really when it started to go, it was a case of getting out there. I thought it’s starting to go, we’ll get there.” Brian still reminisces on the memory of his son, John, being sat in the garage assembling detectable felt greasing pads for crumpet rings in the early days of business. “All it was, was two-part adhesive with some cast-iron filings sprinkled in it on the back of these felt pads so if they fell out, the metal detectors would pick it up.” However, this was not BST’s first detectable product. In fact, Brian had already begun to outsource the production of detectable suction cups for depanner belts after giving the detectable idea to a company already producing suction cups without the detectable additive. To read the full article, follow the link to our News Centre.

https://www.bst-detectable.com/news/story-of-bst-detectable-products